EDUCATION  DEPT. 


THE  PILGRIM  BOY, 


WITH 


LESSONS  FROM  HIS  HISTORY. 


A  NAKRATIYE  OF  FACTS. 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE 
AMERICAN  TRACT  SOCIETY, 

150  NASSAU-STREET,  NEW  YORK. 


EDUCATION  DEPT. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  I. 
His  first  school, 5 

CHAPTER  II. 

His  second  and  third  schools— Closes  his  school  education 
at  ten  years  old .11 

CHAPTER  III. 
Drowning  the  ground-squirrel — Cruelty  to  animals,     .     17 

CHAPTER  IV. 
How  he  was  taught  to  observe  the  Sabbath,         .        .21 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  partridge-trap  and  Sunday  whipping,   .        .        .29 

CHAPTER  VI. 
The  second  falsehood— Fishing  to  get  clear  of  work,    .    42 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Death  of  the  man  with  whom  he  lived,         .        .        .48 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  pilgrim  boy  becomes  profane,  and  learns  to  chew  tobac- 
co,   .. 55 


M69832 


4  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 
The  next  step  in  vice — Card  playing,  .         .        .        .61 

CHAPTER  X. 
Universalism — Bad  books, 72 

CHAPTER  XI. 
Circumstances  that  led  to  his  marriage,       .        .        . .  83 

CHAPTER  XII. 

He  commences  farming — Severe  sickness — Resolutions  to 
repent  and  live  better, 94 

CHAPTER   XIII. 
On  grieving  God's  Spirit, 103 

CHAPTER  XIY. 
Joins  the  church — His  first  communion,       .        .        .  122 

CHAPTER  XV.- 
His  first  Sunday-school  efforts, 127 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
His  labors  in  prayer-meetings— Conversion  of  his  wife,  136 


THE  PILGRIM 


CHAPTER. 

HIS  FIRST  SCHOOL. 

THIS  boy  was  born  in  the  early  part  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  in  what  was  then  called  the 
backwoods,  where  the  howl  of  the  wolf  and 
the  scream  of  the  panther  were  as  common  as 
the  snorting  of  the  iron  horse  is  now  about 
New  York  and  Boston.  In  many  places  the 
marks  of  the  Indian's  tomahawk  were  still  to 
be  seen  on  the  sugar-maples,  and  the  graves  of 
many  who  had  fallen  victims  to  these  cruel  in- 
struments of  death  were  still  fresh.  When 
friends  met,  tears  flowed  as  they  talked  of 
those  loved  ones  who  had  been  shot  or  toma- 
hawked at  their  side  by  the  red  men  of  the  for- 
est, or  as  they  related  the  sufferings  they  had 


6  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

endured  while  in  captivity  in  the  wilderness, 
where  they  were  sometimes  called  to  witness 
the  cruel  torture  and  death  of  those  most  dear 
to  them.  Hearing  these  tales  of  murder  and 
hair-breadth  escapes  had,  no  doubt,  much  to  do 
with  bracing  the  nerves  of  the  pilgrim  boy 
for:t-ao  stru^gl^s -0f  life.  Deprived  in  early 
infancy  ,of  a  fathers  protection,  at  three  years 
oVi  he  was  separated  from  his  pious  mother, 
who  was  left  without  property ;  but  Providence 
provided  for  her  boy.  An  old  gentleman  and 
his  wife  who  had  property  and  had  no  children, 
took  him  and  treated  him  with  great  kindness. 
When  he  was  five  years  old,  he  commenced 
going  to  school  to  an  old  Scotch  woman,  who 
was  a  strict  seceder  and  a  devoted  Christian. 
She  boarded  with  the  man  with  whom  he  lived, 
and  morning  and  evening  was  this  good  lady 
to  be  seen  leading  this  little  boy  along  the 
path  to  her  school  a  mile  distant ;  and  all  the 
way  she  was  telling  him  little  stories  out  of  the 
Bible  and  about  Jesus  Christ,  warning  him  to 
avoid  sin  and  keep  out  of  bad  company.  The 
earnestness  of  her  manner,  and  the  deep  inter- 
est she  manifested  for  him,  led  him  to  love  her 
as  if  she  had  been  his  mother.  The  impression 


HIS  FIRST  SCHOOL.  7 

made  on  liis  mind  by  this  good  woman  never 
forsook  him,  and  often  after  she  was  dead 
he  thought  he  heard  her  yoice  and  felt  the 
gentle  touch  of  that  hand  that  led  him  to  his 
first  school.  In  six  months  she  taught  him  to 
read  the  New  Testament.  The  Testament  and 
the  spelling-book  were  all  the  books  in  the 
school,  and  all  which  were  then  supposed  to 
be  necessary  for  boys  who  were  to  be  farmers 
or  mechanics. 

Let  me  say  to  any  young  friend  who  reads 
the  history  of  the  pilgrim  boy,  Are  you  an  or- 
phan, without  father  or  mother,  houses  or  lands? 
do  not  be  discouraged.  Perhaps  you  are  the 
son  of  a  praying  father  or  mother.  If  so,  each 
prayer  of  faith  they  offered  up  to  God  for  you 
is  so  much  treasure  laid  up  in  heaven,  and  that 
pious  mother  may  now  be  a  ministering  angel 
watching  over  you  by  night  and  day.  If  you 
have  had  such  parents  or  teachers,  call  to  mind 
the  many  kind  words  of  warning  they  gave 
you  ;  think  of  the  prayers  you  heard  them  offer 
to  God  for  you,  and  that  if  you  turn  away  from 
God,  and  go  on  in  sin,  these  prayers  will  for 
ever  sound  in  your  ears  in  the  world  of  woe ; 
they  will  aggravate  the  gnawing  of  the  worm 


8  THE  P1LG-RIM  BOY. 

that  never  dies,  and  fan  the  flames  that  will 
never  be  quenched.  The  pilgrim  boy  never 
forgot  the  warnings  from  his  pious  teacher. 

If  you  are  a  poor  boy,  resolve  to  be  honest 
and  honorable ;  make  up  for  your  poverty  by 
the  dignity  and  purity  of  your  character.  The 
wise  man  has  said,  "A  good  name  is  better 
than  precious  ointment."  While  you  keep  clean 
hands  and  an  unsullied  character  God  will  pro- 
vide you  friends ;  and  to  do  this,  you  must  al- 
ways shun  the  company  of  bad  boys :  "  Go  not 
in  the  way  of  transgressors."  If  you  are  seen 
in  their  company,  you  will  have  to  bear  part  of 
the  disgrace  that  follows  their  bad  deeds,  and 
in  this  way  will  lose  the  confidence  of  good 
men.  A  poor  boy  with  a  bad  character  is  one  of 
the  most  pitiable  objects  to  be  found  on  earth. 
Look  at  that  poor  ill-clothed  boy  breaking  the 
Sabbath  by  idle  play,  taking  the  name  of  God 
in  vain,  telling  lies,  and  perhaps  stealing.  Is 
he  not  despised  by  all  that  see  him?  Good  peo- 
ple will  not  let  their  sons  go  near  him.  Select 
your  companions  with  great  care,  and  if  the 
sons  of  the  wealthy  slight  you  because  you  are 
poor,  let  it  only  stimulate  you  to  become  worthy 
of  the  respect  and  confidence  of  all. 


HIS  FIRST  SCHOOL.  9 

As  a  general  rule,  the  rich  of  one  generation 
are  the  poor  of  the  next.  John  Jacob  Astor 
and  Stephen  Girard  were  poor  boys.  Perhaps 
the  children  of  some  who  slighted  them,  have 
since  been  their  servants,  or  fed  by  their  char- 
ity. Many  of  the  richest  men  of  our  cities  were 
once  poor  boys,  but  honest  industry  has  made 
them  rich.  Another  class  of  poor  boys  have 
,filled  the  highest  stations  in  our  land.  Frank- 
lin was  a  poor  boy,  and  he  became  the  next 
.man  to  Washington  in  his  day.  Henry  Clay 
was  a  poor  boy ;  many  a  day  he  rode  to  mill 
on  a  pony  with  a  sack  of  corn  to  get  it  ground, 
yet  he  became  one  of  the  greatest  statesmen  in 
our  land.  Go  to  all  our  colleges  and  semina- 
ries, hunt  up  all  the  eminent  ministers  of  the 
gospel,  and  you  will  find,  on  inquiry,  that  more 
than  one  half  of  them  were  once  poor  boys.  Let 
the  success  that  has  attended  other  poor  boys 
stimulate  you  to  noble  efforts  ;  set  your  stand- 
ard high,  aim  at  great  things,  resolve  to  be  a 
great  good  man,  bend  all  your  energies  to  that 
end,  and  God  will  take  care  of  the  rest.  He 
may  withhold  riches  from  you  for  your  good ; 
many  boys  could  not  bear  riches,  and  you  may 
be  one  of  them  ;  and  to  save  your  soul,  he  may 


10  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

deprive  you  of  them  in  love  and  mercy.  Let 
your  motto  be,  truth,  honesty,  and  candor  ;  read 
the  advice  of  Solomon  in  the  book  of  Proverbs 
to  boys,  and  follow  its  divine  teachings,  and  it 
will  guide  you  to  honor  on  earth  and  glory  in 
heaven. 


SCHOOL  EDUCATION  CLOSED.  11 


CHAPTER  II. 

HIS  SECOND  AND  THIRD  SCHOOLS— CLOSES  HIS 
SCHOOL  EDUCATION  AT  TEN  YEARS  OLD. 

THE  pilgrim  boy  entered  his  second  school 
before  he  was  six  years  old.  The  old  lady  who 
first  taught  him  died,  and  he  was  sent  to  an 
old  Scotchman,  who  daily  pulled  the  ears  and 
thumped  the  heads  of  the  boys  to  wake  up  their 
ideas ;  or  applied  a  long  rod,  well  laid  on  with 
both  hands,  to  quicken  their  perceptions  in 
grammar  and  vulgar  fractions.  In  this  school 
there  were  more  than  fifty  pupils,  from  five  to 
thirty  years  old.  The  pilgrim  boy  was  one  of  the 
youngest,  and  frequently  he  was  not  called  on 
to  recite  a  lesson  during  the  day,  though  gene- 
rally he  got  his  head  bumped  against  the  wall 
once  or  twice  each  day  for  his  edification. 
But  in  consequence  of  cruelty  and  neglect,  all 
the  small  boys  were  taken  away;  so  he  only 
went  one  month  to  that  teacher.  At  the  close 
of  three  months  the  old  man  was  dismissed  and 
an  Irish  sea-captain  employed,  a  fine  scholar, 
but  his  discipline  was  nearly  the  same,  with  the 


12  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

addition  of  the  cat-o '-nine-tails,  which  was  often 
well  applied  to  the  backs  of  disobedient  boys, 
the  victim  being  supported  on  the  back  of 
another  boy  during  the  process. 

The  pilgrim  boy  was  a  great  favorite  with 
this  teacher,  and  only  once  fell  under  his  dis- 
pleasure during  three  and  a  half  years,  and 
that  was  for  going  with  a  number  of  boys  larg- 
er than  himself  to  a  creek  a  mile  off  to  bathe. 
He  was  the  only  one  of  them  that  could  swim, 
and  they  persuaded  him  to  go  to  teach  them. 
Two  of  them  ventured  into  deep  water  and 
were  nearly  drowned.  They  were  taken  out 
by  the  pilgrim  boy,  supposed  to  be  dead ;  but 
after  long  exertions,  were  resuscitated.  For 
this  act  of  disobedience  all  were  severely  pun- 
ished. The  school-house  was  eighteen  feet 
square,  built  of  round  logs  ;  the  spaces  between 
the  logs  were  stopped  with  small  blocks  of 
wood,  and  daubed  over  with  mortar ;  the  fire- 
place was  made  by  an  offset  in  one  end,  built 
up  with  poles  about  four  feet  high,  with  large 
flat  stones  set  up  edgeways  around  the  fire. 
Often  when  a  boy  had  offended  the  captain,  he 
would  leap  out  atNtli£  fireplace,  and  the  captain 
after  him.  If  he  was  overtaken,  he  was  sure 


SCHOOL  EDUCATION  CLOSED.      13 

to  get  a  severe  whipping ;  but  if  he  could  keep 
out  of  the  way  till  the  captain's  wrath  abated, 
he  would  escape  much  easier. 

Under  the  tuition  of  this  heroic  professor,  the 
pilgrim  boy  closed  the  theoretical  part  of  his 
education,  in  his  tenth  year.  His  intellectual 
furniture  consisted  of  reading,  writing,  arith- 
metic, and  a  little  geography.  He  ate  one 
small  copy  of  a  Latin  grammar  to  get  it  out  of 
the  way. 

As  he  saw  there  was  no  hope  of  his  going  to 
school  any  more,  he  determined  to  study  by 
himself,  and  as  he  had  to  work  hard  for  his  liv- 
ing, the  only  chance  he  had  was  to  borrow 
books  and  read  them  at  night  by  a  hickory- 
bark  light,  as  he  sat  on  the  hearth-stone  with 
his  back  against  the  wall. 

Every  evening  you  might  see  him  coming  in 
from  his  day's  labor  with  a  bunch  of  dry  bark 
under  his  arm,  to  make  a  light  to  read  by.  In 
this  way  he  read,  in  the  course  of  three  years, 
a  circulating  library  of  more  than  three  hun- 
dred volumes.  Of  course  he  had  but  little 
ballast  to  sail  across  the  ocean  of  life,  where 
the  waves  are  heaving  and  surging  over  the 
quicksands  beneath,  and  dashing  against  the 


14  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

rocks  above.  And  he  certainly  would  have 
been  wrecked,  but  for  the  fact  that  what  little 
he  had  was  taken  from  an  old  book  called  the 
Bible,  given  expressly  for  such  voyages,  which 
we  recommend  to  all  the  boys  that  are  on  this 
voyage. 

Forty  years  ago,  a  good  hickory  stick  was 
considered  an  indispensable  part  of  school  fur- 
niture, and  those  who  rebelled  against  author- 
ity were  either  whipped  in  school  or  at  home, 
or  both.  Now  they  often  rebel  with  impunity, 
and  the  teacher  who  resorts  to  the  use  of  a  rod 
has  sometimes  suffered  for  his  faithfulness  the 
loss  of  his  life.  A  case  of  that  kind  recently 
occurred  in  Kentucky,  and  within  a  few  days 
another  has  been  added  to  the  list. 

Let  us  trace  the  history  of  some  of  these 
disobedient  boys.  In  one  school,  the  writer 
knew  a  boy  fourteen  years  old  who  had  to  be 
expelled  for  his  bad  conduct.  Soon  he  ran 
away  to  avoid  parental  restraint,  and  in  a  few 
weeks  news  came  that  while  engaged  with  a 
company  of  bad  boys  hunting  squirrels  on  Sun- 
day, he  climbed  a  tree  after  one  that  was 
wounded,  and  when  forty  feet  above  ground, 
the  limb  on  which  he  was  standing  broke ;  he 


SCHOOL  EDUCATION  CLOSED.  15 

fell  on  his  head,  and  broke  his  neck.  He  was 
one  of  those  boys  who  would  not  be  controlled, 
but  would  do  as  he  pleased. 

In  the  history  of  many  individuals  whom  the 
writer  knew  in  early  life,  a  bad  boy  has  usually 
made  a  bad  man,  except  in  cases  where  the 
Spirit  of  God  has  renewed  the  heart ;  so  it  will 
be  found  as  a  general  rule,  the  world  over. 
You  may  train  a  wolf  beside  a  flock  of  lambs, 
but  he  will  be  a  wolf  still,  unless  his  nature 
be  changed. 

There  is  another  class  of  teachers  to  whom 
the  young  are  much  indebted  :  I  mean  Sabbath- 
school  teachers.  They  devote  much  of  their 
time  to  the  study  of  God's  word  for  the  benefit 
of  children,  without  compensation.  They  often 
hunt  them  up  in  the  streets,  in  many  cases 
clothe  them  at  their  own  expense,  and  then 
sometimes  have  to  bear  with  their  wayward- 
ness and  sin.  There  are  Sabbath-school  boys 
who,  when  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  old,  leave 
the  school,  thinking  they  have  become  too  wise 
to  be  taught  any  more.  They  have  graduated 
as  Sabbath-school  boys,  and  entered  the  street- 
college,  where  on  Sunday  morning  you  will 
hear  them  belching  forth  vulgar  language,  and 


16  THE  PILG-RIM  BOY. 

find  them  disturbing  the  people  as  they  enter 
or  return  from  the  house  of  God8 

Such  boys  who  can  set  at  naught  the  author- 
ity and  respect  due  to  pious,  praying  Sabbath' 
school  teachers,  who  slight  the  laws  of  God, 
and  treat  his  house  with  contempt,  could  scarce- 
ly be  trusted  in  their  neighbor's  store,  or  their 
father's  desk.  There  is  but  one  hope  left  in 
such  cases,  and  the  histoiy  of  the  pilgrim  boy 
encourages  that  hope.  The  truth  that  had  been 
so  faithfully  taught  him  in  early  life,  like  good 
seed  retained  its  vitality,  and  by  divine  cul- 
ture afterwards  yielded  fruit,  although  it  had 
been  crusted  over  with  sin.  The  dews  of  the 
Spirit,  accompanied  by  the  ploughshare  of  afflic- 
tion, softened  and  prepared  the  soil.  God 
grant  it  may  be  so  with  all  that  read  this  little 
book. 


CEUELTY  TO  ANIMALS.  17 


CHAPTER   III. 

<v 

DPcOWNING-  THE   aROUND- SQUIRREL— CEUEL- 
TY TO  ANIMALS. 

ONE  morning  as  the  pilgrim  boy  was  on 
his  way  to  school  to  the  Irish  sea-captain, 
when  he  was  about  seven  years  old,  a  little 
incident  occurred  that  had  an  influence  on  all 
his  after-life.  Up  to  this  time  he  had  been  in 
the  habit  of  killing  and  torturing  little  animals 
for  sport.  The  morning  alluded  to,  he  saw  a 
ground-squirrel  run  into  its  hole  which  it  had 
dug  by  the  roadside  near  a  large  creek.  In- 
stantly he  ran  to  the  hole,  and  stopped  it  up, 
and  got  troughs  that  lay  at  the  raots  of  the 
sugar-maples,  and  carried  what  water  he  sup- 
posed would  drown  the  squirrel.  He  then 
commenced  pouring  in  the  water.  He  soon 
heard  the  squirrel  coming  up,  struggling  for 
life,  and  commenced  talking  to  himself,  and 
saying,  0,  my  fellow,  I  will  soon  have  you 
now. 

Before  he  was  aware,  a  venerable  Christian 

Pa.  Boy.  2 


18  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

man  came  up,  and  laid  his  hand  on  his  head. 
"Well,  my  boy,  what  are  you  doing  here?" 
"  Oh,  I  am  drowning  a  squirrel ;  do  n't  you 
hear  him  struggling  now  for  air?  I  will  soon 
have  him.7'  "My  dear  boy,"  said  he,  "I  am 
sorry  to  see  you  so  cruel ;  what  harm  has  that 
little  innocent  squirrel  done  you?  Now  you 
see  I  am  a  big  man,  and  you  are  a  little  boy. 
If  you  were  down  in  that  hole,  and  I  was  here 
pouring  water  on  you,  would  you  not  think  I 
was  cruel  and  wicked?  Life  is  as  sweet  to 
that  little  innocent  creature,  as  it  is  to  you. 
God  made  it  to  be  happy ;  and  why  will  you 
try  to  kill  it?  When  I  was  a  little  boy,"  said 
he,  "  more  than  fifty  years  ago,  I  was  engaged 
one  day  drowning  a  squirrel,  just  as  you  are 
this  moment,  when  a  good  man  came  along  and 
said  to  me 'nearly  the  same  I  have  said  to  you : 
it  so  affected  me  that  I  never  forgot  it ;  and 
from  that  day  to  this,  I  never  killed  any  inno- 
cent creature  unnecessarily."  The  pilgrim  boy 
left  the  squirrel,  but  never  forgot  the  lesson. 
When  any  little  animal  came  in  his  way,  he 
thought  of  the  good  man's  reproof,  and  always 
respected  him  for  it.  "  The  words  of  the  wise 
are  as  goads."  A  reproof  for  cruelty  given 


CRUELTY  TO  ANIMALS.  19 

to  a  boy  near  one  hundred  years  ago,  is  still 
handed  down  for  the  benefit  of  others. 

My  dear  boys,  when  you  read  this,  think  how 
many  innocent  creatures  you  have  wantonly 
put  to  death ;  and  then  think  what  the  Bible 
says,  "Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for  they  shall 
obtain  mercy."  Even  a  sparrow  does  not  "fall 
to  the  ground  without  our  heavenly  Father." 
That  little  bird  God  made  for  some  wise  pur- 
pose, and  you  killed  it  for  mere  sport.  When 
you  saw  it  struggling  in  death,  were  you  ben- 
efited by  it?  Did  it  make  you  any  happier? 
If  it  did,  you  have  a  heart  as  hard  as  adamant — 
a  heart  that  may  lead  you  to  shed  the  blood  of 
a  fellow-man.  That  dying  bird  should  have 
led  you  to  think  of  the  day  when  you  will  lie 
struggling  in  death,  and  that  justly  too,  for  sin 
against  God ;  but  that  little  bird  had  no  sin, 
it  died  innocently  by  your  wicked  hands. 

Twenty  years  ago,  young  Prescott,  who  at 
the  age  of  nineteen  years  expiated  his  crimes 
on  the  gallows,  was  asked,  the  day  before  his 
execution,  if  he  did  not  delight  in  killing  and 
torturing  animals.  "Oh,  yes,"  he  replied;  "I 
liked  to  kill  them  better  than  to  do  any  thing 
else."  "Did  you  ever  wish  to  kill  people?" 


23  THE  PILG-RIM  BOY. 

was  the  next  question  asked  him.  "I  don't 
know  that  I  did ;  but  I  wanted  to  kill  cattle, 
when  they  did  not  act  to  please  me."  He  was 
hung  for  murdering  the  wife  of  his  employer, 
who  testified  to  his  cruelty  to  cattle.  Youth- 
ful reader,  when  you  take  delight  in  cruelty  to 
any  of  God's  creatures,  think  of  young  Pres- 
cott — think  of  the  gallows. 


OBSERVING-  THE  SABBATH.  21 


CHAPTER  IV. 

HOW  HE  WAS  TAUGHT  TO  OBSERVE  THE 
SABBATH. 

WE  left  the  pilgrim  boy  at  the  close  of  the 
last  chapter  in  his  tenth  year,  with  a  very  small 
stock  of  intellectual  furniture  for  entering  on 
the  duties  of  life.  But  there  was  one  thing 
which  made  up  in  part  for  this  lack  of  educa- 
tion, the  strong  religious  restraints  with  which 
he  was  bound.  The  old  lady  with  whom  he 
lived  was  truly  a  mother  to  him,  watching  over 
him  with  unceasing  faithfulness  day  and  night. 
One  thing  in  which  she  was  rigidly  strict  was, 
the  observance  of  the  Sabbath-day ;  she  kept 
it  sacredly  herself,  and  made  her  boy,  as  she 
called  him,  keep  it  too. 

Two  Sundays  in  each  month  she  took  him 
to  hear  preaching,  which  was  held  mostly  in 
the  woods.  The  minister  stood  in  what  was 
called  a  tent,  or  rostrum,  about  six  feet  square, 
covered  with  slabs ;  the  floor  five  feet  above 
the  ground,  with  steps  to  go  up.  The  clerk, 


22  THE  PILG-RIM:  BOY. 

who  lined  out  the  psalm,  one  line  at  a  time — as 
the  people  thought  David  used  to  do,  when  one 
of  Israel's  old  tunes  was  sung  in  the  temple — 
sat  in  this  tent  with  the  minister.  In  front  of 
the  tent  there  was  a  seat  with  the  back  against 
the  corner  posts  of  the  tent,  on  which  the  el- 
ders sat,  facing  the  people.  It  was  their  duty 
to  see  that  good  order  was  observed,  which 
was  very  necessary,  as  most  people  let  their 
dogs  follow  them  to  church,  and  so  many 
strange  ones  coming  together,  their  fighting 
often  created  great  disturbance.  The  place 
selected  for  the  tent  was  in  the  midst  of  a  grove 
of  large  trees ;  and  if  a  place  could  be  found 
where  there  were  one  hundred  feet  each  way 
without  trees,  and  large  ones  with  extended 
branches  all  around  it,  it  was  considered  a 
providential  arrangement  for  that  purpose,  and 
generally  thanks  were  returned  to  God  each 
Sabbath  for  it  by  the  minister.  The  seats  were 
made  by  splitting  logs,  hewing  the  flat  side, 
and  putting  in  legs  by  boring  holes  with  an 
auger ;  some  of  the  more  wealthy  families 
would  make  their  seats  out  of  a  thick  plank, 
and  have  a  back  to  them.  In  front  of  the  tent 
was  the  communion-table,  extending  from  the 


OBSERVING  THE  SABBATH.      23 

elders'  seat  about  fifty  feet,  with  a  seat  at  each 
side  for  communicants. 

The  people  in  many  cases  came  ten  miles  to 
these  places  of  worship.  It  was  very  common 
for  a  mother  to  walk  and  carry  her  infant  five 
or  six  miles,  and  the  father  the  next  oldest  one, 
and  all  the  rest  to  trot  along  after.  When 
they  reached  the  preaching-place,  all  the  fam- 
ily sat  together ;  or,  as  the  little  folks  were 
much  fatigued,  they  were  laid  down  in  the  dry 
leaves  to  sleep.  In  the  winter  season,  the 
preaching  was  held  in  private  houses. 

The  pilgrim  boy  was  led,  by  the  good  woman 
whom  he  now  called  mother,  regularly  to  one  of 
these  places  of  worship  till  he  was  over  twelve 
years  old,  and  sat  by  her  side,  with  an  old  Bible, 
printed  in  1718,  in  which  he  hunted  out  the 
proof-texts,  and  marked  them  by  turning  down 
a  leaf.  In  those  days  the  minister  quoted  his 
proof-texts,  chapter  and  verse,  giving  the  peo- 
ple time  to  find  and  mark  them.  The  Bible 
the  boy  carried  was  ten  inches  long,  five  inches 
broad,  and  three  inches  thick,  covered  with 
deerskin,  and  bound  round  with  a  strong  strap, 
for  its  preservation.  This  boy  was  twelve 
years  old  before  he  saw  what  was  called  a 


24  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

church,  or  building  expressly  for  the  worship 
of  God. 

In  those  old-fashioned  times,  the  first  thing 
the  minister  did  was  to  read  and  explain  the 
portion  of  the  Psalm  to  be  sung,  so  that  the 
people  might  sing  with  the  understanding, 
which  often  took  nearly  an  hour.  In  thoso 
days,  "all  the  people  praised  God/7  whether 
they  could  sing  by  rule  or  not ;  and  as  they 
had  but  twelve  tunes,  they  were  soon  learned. 
Then  followed  the  sermon,  which  was  seldom 
less  than  two  hours  long,  and  was  often  divid- 
ed and  subdivided  into  twenty  or  more  divis- 
ions. Then  singing  and  prayer  closed  the 
morning  service.  An  interval  was  then  given 
of  forty  minutes,  to  take  refreshments ;  and  the 
people  mostly  collected  at  the  spring,  where 
long-handled  gourds  were  used  to  supply  the 
thirsty  with  water,  and  if  the  day  was  either 
very  hot  or  very  cold,  the  head  of  the  family 
brought  a  pint  flask  of  whiskey,  which  was 
then  thought  necessary  to  prevent  injury  from 
exposure.  They  then  assembled  again,  and 
had  the  same  order  of  services,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  explaining  the  Psalm,  which  was  omit- 
ted in  the  afternoon.  The  services  began  at 


OBSERVING-  THE  SABBA-TH.  25 

ten  A.  M.,  and  usually  closed  a  little  after  four 
p.  M.,  so  that  most  of  the  people  might  get  home 
by  sunset.  A  cold  dinner  was  then  eaten,  as 
cooking  was  not  permitted  on  the  Sabbath. 

After  supper,  the  children  were  called  to  re- 
peat the  text,  and  give  all  the  divisions  of  the 
subject ;  and  the  catechism  was  gone  through 
before  retiring  to  bed.  This  closed  the  exer- 
cises of  the  Sunday  on  which  they  had  preach- 
ing. The  whole  day  was  spent  in  the  public 
and  private  exercises  of  God's  worship. 

The  preachers  in  those  old-fashioned  times 
used  to  hold  an  examination  in  some  quarter  of 
the  congregation  every  month,  which  all  were 
expected  to  attend ;  and  the  Christian  charac- 
ter of  parents  was  estimated  by  the  knowledge 
of  their  children.  Every  pious  household  was 
then  a  Sunday-school. 

The  writer  has  visited  a  number  of  prisons, 
and  talked  with  many  convicts,  confined  for 
various  crimes,  but  he  never  found  one  who  in 
boyhood  abstained  from  play  and  idleness  on 
the  Sabbath,  read  God's  word,  and  attended 
preaching  and  Sabbath-school  regularly.  All 
have  testified  that  they  set  at  naught  God's 
command,  "Kernember  the  Sabbath-day  to  keep 


26  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

it  holy."  Let  me  entreat  you,  my  dear  boys, 
as  you  value  your  own  souls,  to  avoid  this  first 
step  on  the  road  to  ruin.  Where  do  the  gal- 
lows and  penitentiary  get  their  victims,  but 
from  the  ranks  of  those  who  in  their  boyish 
days  spent  their  Sundays  in  fishing  and  hunt- 
ing, or  hanging  about  the  corners  of  the  streets 
planning  mischief ;  or  what  is  worse,  in  groups 
at  the  church  doors,  interrupting  the  worship 
of  God,  insulting  their  Maker  to  his  face,  and 
bidding  defiance  to  his  laws. 

The  writer  knew  two  boys,  the  sons  of 
wealthy  irreligious  men,  who  lived  near  a 
church ;  and  from  the  age  of  ten  to  sixteen 
they  habitually  came  to  the  church  door  to 
play  tricks,  and  make  others  laugh.  At  length 
they  were  sent  to  college ;  but  when  they  re- 
turned home  in  vacation,  they  became  more 
bold,  and  would  come  into  the  church  and  in- 
terrupt the  whole  congregation.  The  minister 
reproved  them  again  and  again ;  at  last  he 
said,  if  those  young  men  behaved  so  again,  he 
would  call  out  their  names  in  public.  The 
next  Sunday  they  both  came,  took  their  seats 
in  a  conspicuous  place,  and  sat  with  their  hats 
on,  reading  newspapers;  and  as  the  services 


OBSERVING  THE  SABBATH.  27 

went  on,  their  conduct  drew  the  attention  of 
all  in  the  house.  The  minister  stopped  a  few 
moments,  with  his  eyes  turned  heavenwards, 
and  the  tears  flowing,  and  then  proclaimed, 
"  J.  B and  J.  W ,  your  doom  is  writ- 
ten in  heaven ;  you  will  soon  die  in  disgrace.'7 
They  immediately  left  the  church.  In  a  few 
days  they  left  the  country.  Scarce  three  months 
had  passed  before  they  committed  murder  to 
obtain  money.  One  was  hung,  and  the  other 
put  into  solitary  confinement  for  life,  but  he 
died  in  less  than  a  year. 

Beware  of  all  those  who  trifle  with  God's 
holy  day.  The  pilgrim  boy  did  not  like  the 
restraints  that  were  thrown  around  him.  On 
his  way  to  church,  he  used  to  see  boys  fishing 
along  the  creek,  and  wished  he  could  fish  too  ; 
but  his  mother  would  not  let  him,  and  he  has 
often  thanked  God  for  it  since.  Boys  who  pro- 
fane the  Sabbath,  are  brought  into  contact  with 
the  vilest  characters  in  the  community  on  that 
day,  and  in  addition  to  breaking  God's  law  of 
the  Sabbath,  they  learn  to  swear,  lie,  and  steal. 
In  some  of  our  cities,  the  separation  on  the  Sab- 
bath reminds  one  of  the  separation  that  will 
take  place  at  the  day  of  judgment.  On  other 


28  THE  PILG-RIM  BOY. 

days  of  the  week,  the  good  and  bad  mingle  to- 
gether in  business;  but  on  the  Sabbath  they 
separate  from  each  other.  Keep  away  from  all 
those  who  slight  this  sacred  day  of  rest.  They 
are  always  vulgar  and  profane  ;  and  hearing 
their  vile,  filthy  expressions  will  taint  your 
whole  character.  Even  if  you  become  a  Chris- 
tian afterwards,  their  vile  sayings  will  remain 
in  your  mind  while  you  live,  if  they  do  not 
escape  your  lips,  and  show  to  the  world  your 
early  associations.  Evil  communications  cor- 
rupt good  manners.  Show  me  your  company, 
and  I  will  tell  you  your  character,  is  an  old  but 
true  maxim. 


THE  PARTRIDGE-TRAP.  29 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    PARTRIDGE-TRAP   AND   SUNDAY  WHIP- 
P1NG-. 

WHEN  the  pilgrim  boy  was  about  ten  years 
old,  he  began  to  think  there  was  no  use  in  fol- 
lowing so  closely  the  advice  of  an  old  woman  ; 
and  as  his  acquaintance  began  to  enlarge,  ho 
saw  boys  that  did  not  go  to  church,  who  fished 
on  Sunday,  and  trapped  partridges.  He  soon 
tried  to  get  loose  from  the  old  woman's  leading- 
strings,  so  that  he  might  go  with  other  boys  and 
enjoy  their  fun  ;  but  he  was  well  aware,  from 
past  experience,  that  it  would  be  no  easy  mat- 
ter to  escape  her  piercing  black  eyes.  He  some- 
times thought  the  birds  carried  tales  to  her,  for 
she  appeared  to  know  every  thing  he  did,  good 
or  bad. 

An  opportunity  soon  offered  for  him  to  try 
his  skill  in  evading  her  vigilance.  One  Satur- 
day in  the  winter  of  1813,  the  snow  fell  about 
six  inches  deep.  In  the  evening  he  met  a  neigh- 
bor boy  of  his  own  age,  the  son  of  an  irrelig- 
ious man,  who  neither  regarded  the  Sabbath 


30  THE  PILaEIM  BOY. 

himself,  nor  taught  his  sons  to  regard  it.  That 
boy  told  him  that  the  next  day  would  be  a  fine 
day  to  trap  partridges,  that  there  were  a  great 
many  of  them  in  a  thicket  in  their  field,  and 
asked  him  to  go  home  and  make  a  trap,  and  be 
ready  to  meet  him  in  the  morning  as  soon  as  he 
had  eaten  his  breakfast,  and  they  would  have 
fine  fun.  He  replied  that  he  would  like  very 
much  to  do  it,  but  old  mammy  would  make  him 
go  to  preaching.  The  other  boy  said,  "I  can 
tell  you  how  to  come  over  an  old  woman  like 
her.  Tell  her  you  are  sick  ;  don't  eat  any 
breakfast,  slip  to  the  cupboard,  fill  your  pock- 
ets, and  carry  it  to  the  barn,  and  hide  it  till 
you  are  ready  to  start,  and  then  eat  it." 

The  plan  seemed  to  be  a  good  one,  and  all 
the  arrangements  for  meeting  next  morning 
were  made  in  a  few  minutes.  The  pilgrim  boy 
ran  home,  and  was  soon  at  work  on  his  trap. 
By  the  time  the  trap  was  done,  it  was  near 
dark,  and  the  old  lady  was  on  the  way  to  the 
barn  to  milk  her  cows.  As  she  passed  by  him, 
she  said,  "  Well,  what  are  you  making  so  late 
in  the  evening?'7  He  told  her  there  were  a 

great  many  partridges  in  Mr.  F 's  field,  and 

he  wanted  to  catch  her  some  of  them.     She 


THE  PARTJUDG-E-THAP.  31 

said,  "It  is  too  late  to-night,  and  to-morrow  is 
the  Lord's  day,  and  we  go  to  church  f  and 
there  was  a  look  of  her  eye  that  seemed  to  say, 
I  will  watch  that  trap  pretty  closely.  The  pil- 
grim boy  saw  there  was  danger  ahead,  and  to 
avoid  it  told  his  frst  lie,  by  saying  he  was  mak- 
ing it  ready  for  Monday  morning. 

The  trap,  with  all  its  appendages,  was  ready 
by  dark  ;  but  that  big  lie  was  not  done  with. 
He  went  to  bed,  but  could  not  sleep  for  some 
hours.  Oh  what  feelings  he  had !  He  tried 
to  pray,  but  could  not ;  a  voice  seemed  to  say, 
"All  liars  shall  have  their  portion  in  the  lake 
that  burns  with  fire  and  brimstone;"  and  he 
could  not  rest  till  he  promised  God  and  his 
own  conscience  he  never  would  tell  another 
lie.  In  the  morning  he  rose  early,  thought  of 
the  feelings  of  the  past  night,  said  his  prayers, 
and  went  out  as  usual.  But  the  beautiful  snow 
and  the  cry  of  the  bobwhites  overcame  all  the 
resolutions  of  the  past  night,  and  he  soon  set 
about  to  invent  another  lie.  God  had  not 
taken  vengeance  on  him  for  the  one  of  the  pre* 
vious  evening,  and  he  reasoned,  that  as  he  had 
promised  the  other  boy  to  meet  him,  he  must 
now  tell  a  lie  either  to  his  old  mammy  or  to  tho 


32  THE  PiLG-frlM  BOY. 

boy  by  breaking  that  promise.  His  inclination 
soon  settled  the  question.  A  lie  was  a  lie,  he 
thought,  and  he  would  take  the  course  that 
would  give  him  the  most  fun ;  so  he  set  about 
planning  another  lie  to  deceive  his  old  mammy, 
and  no  doubt  Satan  aided  him. 

The  breakfast  was  soon  ready,  as  there  was 
no  cooking  done  on  Sunday.  He  said  he  could 
not  eat;  that  he  was  sick;  he  drank  a  little 
tea,  moaned  a  good  deal,  and  tried  to  look 
pale  ;  but  all  the  time  was  scanning  closely  his 
old  mammy's  eyes,  which  seemed  to  say,  I  am 
not  quite  sure  about  your  sickness.  It  was 
soon  time  to  go  to  church.  He  put  in  his  plea 
of  sickness  and  a  hole  in  his  slipe,  and  finally 
succeeded  in  getting  leave  to  stay  at  home, 
by  promising  to  read  all  day,  and  commit  to 
memory  the  one  hundred  and  sixteenth  Psalm, 
Rouse's  version. 

The  other  boy  soon  came  along,  and  gave 
the  signal-whistle  to  start.  The  old  lady  was 
not  gone  yet.  The  pilgrim  boy,  to. get  away 
safe,  took  his  psalm-book,  and  said  he  would  go 
out  to  the  barn  and  learn  his  psalm ;  but  as 
the  other  boy  was  waiting,  he  left  the  book  in 
the  barn,  and  pushed  on  to  the  thicket  with  his 


THE  PARTRIDOE-TRAP.  33 

trap.  While  in  the  act  of  setting  the  trap,  who 
comes  along  but  his  old  mammy.  As  she  was 
a  little  later  than  usual,  she  came  across  the 
field  to  save  distance,  very  unexpectedly  to 
him.  She  caught  a  glimpse  of  her  boy ;  his 
name  was  called  aloud.  She  came  to  the  place, 
found  the  trap  just  set,  which  she  soon  demol- 
ished, broke  off  a  birch  limb  four  or  five  feet 
long,  took  her  boy  home  with  her,  shut  the 
door,  and  applied  the  birch  till  the  red  came 
very  freely.  He  promised  very  earnestly  never 
to  tell  another  lie,  or  trap  partridges  again  on 
Sunday.  He  was  soon  washed  and  dressed, 
and  on  the  road  to  church,  with  a  sermon  on 
the  terrors  of  the  law,  two  miles  long,  preached 
to  him  by  the  way ;  and  a  similar  one  on  the 
way  home,  in  the  presence  of  some  of  the  good 
people  that  went  the  same  road,  who  fully  ap- 
proved of  the  whole. 

The  pilgrim  boy  never  forgot  that  'day's 
preaching  ;  it  was  the  best  sermon  he  had  ever 
got ;  he  not  only  felt  it  on  his  skin,  but  in  his 
heart.  He  knew  he  had  not  only  grieved  that 
mother,  but  had  offended  God ;  he  had  told4 
one  lie  to  hide  another  ;  and  if  he  had  escaped 
punishment  in  the  commencement  of  this  course 

Pd.  Boy.  3 


34  THE  PILaRIM  BOY. 

of  falsehood  and  crime,  we  know  not  what 
might  have  been  his  end. 

Thirty  years  after  that  time,  the  pilgrim  boy 
stood  by  the  dying-bed  of  that  good  woman, 
in  the  same  room  where  the  rod  had  been  so 
effectually  applied,  and  with  tears  of  gratitude 
thanked  her  for  that  very  whipping.  If  he  had 
succeeded  in  deceiving  her  by  a  falsehood  that 
day,  the  next  time  he  wanted  to  stay  at  home, 
another  lie  would  have  been  told ;  and  we  have 
seen  how  one  lie  seems  to  make  another  neces- 
sary in  order  to  escape  detection,  till  the  heart 
becomes  hardened  in  sin.  and  the  result  is  ruin 
here,  and  eternal  ruin  hereafter. 

Avoid  lying  and  Sabbath-breaking.  You 
may  deceive  your  parents,  but  you  cannot  de- 
ceive an  omniscient  God,  or  your  own  con- 
science. "  Be  sure  your  sin  will  find  you  out ;" 
and  better  for  it  to  find  you  out,  and  lead  you 
to  repentance  here,  than  to  find  you  out  in 
hell,  where  there  is  no  repentance.  One  or 
the  other  is  certain  as  the  oath  and  promise  of 
'God  can  make  it.  Take  warning;  avoid  the 
first  inclination  to  falsehood,  and  a  liar's  doom. 

In  this  conduct  of  the  pilgrim  boy,  he  broke 
three  of  God's  commandments :  he  broke  the 


THE  PARTRIDGE-TRAP.  35 

ninth  by  telling  lies,  the  fourth  by  breaking  the 
Sabbath-day,  and  by  disobedience  he  broke  the 
fifth :  "  Honor  thy  father  and  mother,  that  thy 
days  may  be  long  in  the  land  which  the  Lord 
thy  God  giveth  thee." 

This  command  of  the  decalogue  stands  first 
in  our  duties  to  man.  "Write  it  on  the  tablet 
of  your  heart.  It  was  written  by  God's  own 
finger  on  a  table  of  stone  on  mount  Sinai,  when 
the  mountain  quaked,  as  if  warning  of  the  awful 
consequences  that  would  follow  its  violation 
from  a  sin-avenging  God.  Look  again  at  the 
first  word:  "Honor"  your  father  and  mother, 
by  obeying  cheerfully  all  their  commands,  ex- 
cept they  command  you  to  disobey  God  ;  not 
waiting  for  the  command  to  be  repeated — not 
saying,  I  can't  do  it,  or  I  don't  want  to  do  it, 
or  delaying  as  long  as  you  can,  to  avoid  pun- 
ishment. 

Honor  your  parents,  not  only  by  strict  obe- 
dience when  in  their  sight,  but  by  your  good 
conduct  when  out  of  their  sight.  See  that  boy 
cursing  and  fighting  in  the  street.  Listen  to  the 
people  as  they  pass  by,  saying,  "  I  wonder  what 
kind  of  parents  that  boy  has ;  they  must  raise 
their  boys  like  heathen  ;  that  boy  is  a  candidate 


36  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

for  the  penitentiary."  Sucli  a  boy  is  bringing 
dishonor  on  his  parents  and  disgrace  on  him- 
self. Especially  are  the  faults  of  the  children 
of  pious  parents  taken  notice  of,  as  more  is  ex- 
pected from  them.  When  out  of  sight  of  their 
parents,  lest  they  should  be  thought  religious 
and  be  laughed  at  by  wicked  boys,  they  are 
tempted  to  say  and  do  many  things  for  which 
their  own  conscience  bitterly  accuses  them,  and 
for  which  they  intend  to  repent  in  the  future. 
It  is  an  awful  truth,  that  some  boys,  however 
well  trained,  if  they  are  unconverted,  feel  more 
ashamed  to  be  seen  praying,  than  to  be  heard 
cursing  or  lying  in  the  presence  of  the  wicked. 
Let  the  sons  of  pious  men  keep  it  in  mind,  that 
they  are  the  representatives  of  their  parents 
when  out  of  their  sight.  The  good  moral  char- 
acter of  the  son  shows  that  he  has  respectable 
parents,  and  thus  his  parents  are  honored. 

Honor  your  parents  by  submitting  to  their 
judgment,  even  when  you  think  they  may  be 
wrong.  Their  experience  has  taught  them 
many  things  of  which  you  are  still  ignorant. 
When  the  pilgrim  boy  was  very  small,  he  would* 
listen  for  hours  to  old  people  talking,  that  he 
might  have  the  benefit  of  their  experience.  So 


THE  PARTRIDGE-TRAP.  37 

all  that  you  learn  from  your  parents  is  so  much 
practical  capital  for  you  to  begin  with.  I  do 
not  mean  by  this  that,  because  your  father 
always  rode  on  horseback,  you  should  never 
enter  a  railroad  car  ;  or  that  if  he  was  an  un- 
believer, you  should  be  one  too.  But  I  mean, 
that  you  should  give  due  respect  to  all  the  opin- 
ions of  your  parents. 

But  there  is  a  large  class  of  boys  in  every 
community  whose  fathers  are  in  their  graves, 
and  a  widowed  mother  has  the  responsibility 
of  their  training.  Do  you  obey  the  commands 
of  that  mother  ;  or  is  she  weeping  and  mourning 
over  your  disobedience?  Have  you  begun  to 
think  you  are  too  large  to  be  directed  by  that 
mother;  that  it  is  unmanly  to  be  led  by  her, 
and  time  for  you  to  set  up  for  yourself?  If 
you  have  any  such  feelings,  banish  them  as  you 
would  the  thought  of  murder :  they  will  lead 
you  to  slight  all  her  maternal  counsels,  and 
mourn  in  sorrow  over  your  disregard  of  her. 
How  painful  the  thought  of  a  self-willed  boy, 
refusing  to  be  controlled  by  that  kind  mother 
who  watched  over  his  infant  days,  soothed 
him  in  his  little  sorrows,  and  taught  his  infant 
lips  to  pray.  What  a  vile  wretch  such  a  boy 


38  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

is.  Wonderful  forbearance  of  God  to  let  him 
live! 

I  have  seen  such  boys  in  the  prison,  and  be- 
fore the  criminal  court,  and  in  the  solitary  cell. 
Could  we  expect  any  thing  else  of  a  boy  that 
would  not  obey  his  mother?  Could  we  expect 
him  to  obey  the  laws  of  the  land  ?  No  ;  the 
will  that  is  too  stubborn  to  yield  to  the  en- 
treaties of  a  tender  mother,  will  soon  trample 
on  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  all  legal  enact- 
ments. It  has  been  a  peculiarity  of  all  great 
men,  that  they  revered  their  mothers.  The 
Saviour  in  his  dying  agony  said  to  one  of  his 
disciples,  "  Behold  thy  mother."  Read  the  lives 
of  the  best  men  that  ever  lived,  and  see  if  you 
can  find  one  that  slighted  the  advice  of  his 
mother.  Look  at  the  father  of  our  country, 
the  immortal  Washington,  and  Bonaparte  the 
hero,  and  hosts  of  others.  They  were  not  too 
wise  to  be  controlled  by  a  mother. 

Or  are  you,  like  the  pilgrim  boy,  an  orphan, 
without  father  or  mother,  and  taken  care  of  by 
those  who  act  the  part  of  a  father  or  mother  to 
you?  If  so,  you  are  bound  to  obey  them  with 
the  same  fidelity  as  if  they  were  your  own  par- 
ents. In  some  respects,  the  obligation  is  even 


THE  PARTRIDGE. TRAP.  39 

greater.  Your  parents,  while  living,  were 
bound  to  take  care  of  you  ;  but  if  you  are  an 
orphan  boy,  without  any  property,  and  friends 
are  taking  care  of  you  upon  whom  you  have  no 
claims  beyond  those  of  mere  humanity,  an  in- 
creased obligation  rests  on  you  to  obey  them. 
The  law  of  God  requires  it,  and  promises  the 
same  rewards  or  punishments. 

But  how  often  do  we  see  some  poor  penni- 
less boy,  taken  home  by  some  uncle,  or  aunt, 
fed,  clothed,  and  sent  to  school,  breaking  away 
from  their  necessary  restraints,  and  setting  up 
for  himself;  associating  with  wicked  boys; 
going  to  the  grog-shop  and  card-table  first,  and 
soon  after  wallowing  in  the  gutter. 

Not  long  since,  a  ragged,  dirty-looking  boy 
called  on  a  man  in  the  state  of  Missouri  to  get 
work,  who  asked  him  if  he  had  parents  living 
to  take  care  of  him.  The  boy  said,  "  No  ;"  but 
he  had  been  living  with  an  uncle  for  some  time, 
who  would  not  let  him  do  as  he  wished,  and  he 
had  left  him.  The  man  advised  him  to  go 
back,  but  in  vain.  The  next  morning,  Sunday, 
the  man  saw  him  in  a  fight  with  another  boy, 
and  separated  them ;  but  though  he  was  the 
aggressor,  he  swore  vengeance  on  the  other 


40  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

boy  if  he  ever  met  him  again.  He  went  to  the 
river  near  by,  and  persuaded  boys  to  go  in  with 
him  to  bathe ;  he  waded  out  into  the  current, 
and  sunk  to  rise  no  more.  He  would  not  be 
controlled  by  an  uncle;  he  did  as  he  pleased. 

Some  disobedient  boys  have  lived  to  be  old, 
but  their  old  age  has  generally  been  unhappy. 
When  I  was  a  little  boy,  I  heard  people  often 
tell  of  a  man  whom  I  knew  well,  that  dragged 
his  old  gray-headed  decrepit  father  out  of  the 
house  by  the  hair  of  his  head,  kicking  him  as 
he  went.  His  sons  have  often  kicked  him  since, 
and  he  has  become  an  outcast,  despised  by  all 
that  knew  him.  To  dishonor  your  parents  and 
those  who  have  the  care  of  you,  is  a  sin  which 
God  will  not  let  go  unpunished.  You  may  live 
to  receive  your  pay  back  with  interest  from 
your  own  children.  The  pay  will  be  sure  some 
day. 

Under  the  law  of  Moses,  the  disobedient  son 
was  to  be  stoned  to  death  in  the  presence  of  the 
whole  congregation,  as  a  warning  to  other  boys. 
There  was  no  escape  from  the  penalty,  or  ex- 
ceptions to  the  divine  rule,  under  the  Jewish 
law  ;  and  the  Bible  is  full  of  curses  against  all 
disobedient  children.  Read  that  awful  decla- 


THE  PARTRIDGE-TRAP.  41 

ration  in  Prov.  30  : 17,  "  The  eye  that  mocketh 
at  his  father,  and  despiseth  to  obey  his  mother, 
the  ravens  of  the  valley  shall  pluck  it  out,  and 
the  young  eagles  shall  eat  it."  In  Rom.  1  :  30, 
they  are  classed  with  "  backbiters  and  haters  of 
God."  In  2  Tim.  3  :  2,  they  are  classed  with 
proud  blasphemers  and  unholy  men.  Such  is 
the  character  of  disobedient  children,  given  in 
God's  word,  and  the  punishment  to  be  inflicted. 
Do  you  desire  the  favor  of  God  and  long 
life?  Obey  your  parents.  Do  you  desire  to 
escape  his  judgments  in  this  life,  and  his  wrath 
in  the  life  to  come  ?  Obey  your  parents.  Do 
you  desire  the  favor  and  respect  of  all  good 
men  in  this  world?  Then  obey  your  parents, 
or  those  who  have  the  responsibility  of  your 
training,  and  save  yourself  disgrace  here,  or  an 
untimely  end,  with  eternal  banishment  from 
God's  presence  hereafter. 


42  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  SECOND  FALSEHOOD-FISHING  TO  GET 
CLEAR  OF  WORK. 

IT  might  naturally  be  supposed  that  what  the 
pilgrim  boy  had  suffered,  with  the  good  instruc- 
tion he  had  received,  would  have  cured  him  of 
lying.  But  no ;  he  had  a  desperately  wicked 
heart ;  he  loved  the  father  of  lies  more  than  he 
loved  God,  and  all  he  cared  for  was  to  gratify 
his  evil  desires. 

At  ten  years  old,  he  had  to  leave  school  and 
commence  hard  labor,  of  which  he  was  not  very 
fond  at  that  time.  When  the  season  came  for 
planting  corn,  he  was  set  to  drop  the  seed  in 
the  furrows.  It  was  easy  work,  and  he  was 
quite  delighted  witli  it  the  iirst  day.  In  the 
evening,  on  his  way  home  from  the  field,  he 
met  the  same  boy  who  led  him  to  break  the 
Sabbath  and  tell  his  first  lie.  That  boy  now 
proposed  that  they  should  go  a  fishing  the  next 
day.  The  pilgrim  boy  was  anxious  to  go,  but 
there  was  corn  to  plant,  and  he  did  not  see  how 
he  could  get  off  from  his  work.  At  last,  by 


THE  SECOND  FALSEHOOD.  43 

the  aid  of  the  other  boy,  a  plan  was  laid.  It 
was  this.  The  measles  were  prevailing  in  the 
neighborhood,  and  he  was  to  feign  himself  sick 
with  that  disease,  and  after  all  hands  were 
gone  out  to  their  work,  slip  off  to  the  creek 
with  his  hook  and  line.  All  the  plans  were 
laid  to  the  best  possible  advantage  for  the  day's 
fishing.  After  he  went  to  bed,  the  partridge- 
trap  came  to  his  mind,  and  made  him  quite  un- 
easy ;  but  as  it  was  not  the  Sabbath,  he  thought 
he  could  escape,  and  it  would  not  do  to  break 
his  promise  with  the  boy. 

When  breakfast  was  ready,  he  said  he  was 
sick,  and  could  not  eat ;  that  he  had  met  a  boy 
who  had  the  measles,  and  had  caught  them. 
The  old  lady,  who  was  one  of  the  main  doctors 
of  the  neighborhood,  said  she  could  soon  de- 
cide that  matter.  She  entered  into  a  strict 
examination  of  all  his  symptoms,  and  pronounc- 
ed it  all  a  fabrication  to  get  clear  of  work,  and 
said  she  could  soon  cure  him  with  a  good  hick- 
ory. She  took  him  in  hand  at  once,  and  in  less 
than  five  minutes  the  symptoms  were  all  gone, 
except  a  redness  of  the  skin  occasioned  by  the 
rod,  and  he  was  on  his  way  to  the  corn-field  to 
work  without  any  breakfast.  This  cured  the 


44  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

pilgrim  boy  of  lying.  Among  all  the  sins  he 
ever  committed,  none  ever  gave  him  so  much 
distress  as  that  one,  especially  from  the  fact  that 
he  was  reminded  of  it  almost  every  day  by  those 
who  saw  him  whipped  and  heard  him  tell  the 
lie.  It  led  him  to  resolve  never  to  tell  any  more 
lies,  and  it  brought  into  his  soul  the  first  real 
convictions  for  sin  he  ever  felt.  He  became  so 
alarmed  in  consequence  of  it,  that  he  was  afraid 
to  be  alone  at  night,  lest  the  devil  should  come 
and  carry  him  off  alive. 

You  may  not  often  have  told  such  glaring 
falsehoods  as  this  boy  did ;  but  have  you  not 
dissembled  to  hide  your  faults?  When  asked 
where  you  have  been,  and  whom  you  have  been 
in  company  with,  have  you  not  practised  de- 
ception by  holding  back  part  of  the  truth? 
Ananias  and  Sapphira  his  wife  only  withheld 
part  of  the  truth ;  but  they  were  smitten  of 
God,  and  died  instantly,  as  a  warning  to  all 
liars.  There  is  no  sin  that  grows  more  rapidly 
than  this.  If  you  tell  a  lie  to-day,  and  gain 
some  indulgence  by  it,  and  escape  punishment, 
you  will  tell  another  to-morrow  much  easier, 
and  in  a  short  time  the  habit  will  become  so 
strong  that  you  can  hardly  speak  the  truth. 


THE  SECOND  FALSEHOOD.  45 

Of  all  mean  characters,  none  are  more  justly 
despised  than  liars.  The  thief  may  take  your 
property,  but  the  liar  will  rob  you  of  your 
character,  and  keep  a  whole  community  dis- 
turbed. Lying  will  bring  disgrace  on  your 
parents,  your  brothers  and  sisters,  and  ruin 
your  own  soul,  if  persisted  in.  Beware,  then, 
of  the  first  lie ;  always  tell  the  truth,  let  it  cost 
you  what  it  may. 

Remember  George  Washington  when  he  was 
a  little  boy.  His  father  had  bought  him  a  new 
hatchet,  and  the  next  morning  he  cut  down  a 
beautiful  pear-tree  his  father  very  highly  valued. 
No  one  saw  him  do  it,  and  it  might  readily  be 
supposed  some  of  the  servants  did  it.  His 
father  was  very  much  displeased,  and  called  all 
up  to  inquire  who  was  guilty,  and  George  re- 
plied, "Father,  I  did  it."  The  fault  was  cheer- 
fully forgiven,  and  the  father  embraced  his  son 
with  a  joyful  heart.  How  many  boys  there  are 
who  would  have  denied  it,  and  laid  the  blame 
on  some  one  else,  making  the  crime  a  two-fold 
one.  It  grieves  parents  and  friends  much  to 
know  that  their  boys  do  wrong ;  but  to  know 
that  they  do  wrong,  and  then  tell  lies  about  it, 
grieves  them  ten  times  more. 


46  THE  PILG-E1M  BOY. 

Now,  my  dear  boy,  if  you  have  been  in  the 
habit  of  telling  lies,  when  you  read  this,  resolve 
you  will  never  tell  another ;  break  off  at  once 
from  a  habit  that  leads  to  disgrace,  and  makes 
you  a  companion  of  the  devil,  who  was  a  liar 
from  the  beginning.  Some  boys  get  into  the 
habit  of  lying  by  relating  every  thing  they  see 
and  hear  with  some  addition  to  it,  making  a 
wonderful  tale  out  of  some  trifle.  They  think 
it  makes  them  big  to  relate  some  strange  thing, 
and  brings  them  into  notice.  Beware,  then,  of 
boasting  or  exaggerating ;  it  will  lead  you  to 
downright  lying.  When  you  have  told  a  lie, 
and  come  to  reflect  about  it,  has  it  not  given 
you  great  distress?  The  pilgrim  boy  could  not 
sleep  after  his  lies ;  and  1  have  known  many  a 
boy  that  was  afraid  to  lie  down  at  night,  after 
telling  lies. 

The  pain  and  shame  of  lying  overbalances 
all  the  pleasure  any  one  can  derive  from  it. 
By  contracting  such  a  habit,  you  will  get  to 
hate  yourself.  You  will  be  carrying  in  your 
bosom,  while  on  earth,  the  worm  that  never 
dies.  You  will  be  always  dreading  detection 
and  fearing  exposure.  You  will  gradually  be- 
come ashamed  to  look  any  one  in  the  face,  as 


THE  SECOND  FALSEHOOD.  47 

no  confirmed  liar  has  a  frank,  open  counte- 
nance, but  is  down-looking.  Let  your  motto 
be,  truth  under  all  circumstances.  Then  you 
can  hold  up  your  head  like  a  man.  Men  of 
truth  may  be  respected,  though  they  may  have . 
many  other  failings,  but  a  liar  never. 


48  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

CHAPTER   VII. 

DEATH  OF  THE  MAN  WITH  WHOM  HE  LIVED. 

ABOUT  this  time  a  trying  circumstance  oc- 
curred to  the  pilgrim  boy.  It  was  the  death 
of  the  old  man  with  whom  he  lived,  about 
whom  nothing  has  yet  been  said.  He  was  a 
very  wicked  man,  and  professed  to  be  a  deist, 
but  always  said  he  would  educate  the  pilgrim 
boy  for  a  preacher,  arid  at  his  death  give  him 
half  his  estate,  which  was  considerable.  The 
old  man's  custom  was  to  rise  early,  and  eat  a 
lunch  as  soon  as  he  was  dressed.  One  morn- 
ing he  rose  before  his  usual  time,  and  called 
for  some  bread  and  meat.  The  pilgrim  boy 
was  directed  to  bring  it  to  him.  He  took  one 
mouthful,  and  fell  dead  without  moving  a  mus- 
cle. There  was  no  one  present  but  this  boy. 
It  was  the  first  death  he  had  ever  witnessed, 
and  it  alarmed  him  terribly  to  see  a  wicked,  pro- 
fane man  cut  down  in  a  moment.  The  old  man 
had  wished  himself  in  hell  but  a  few  minutes 
before,  in  a  fit  of  passion,  and  he  seemed  to  be 


DEATH  OF  HIS  PATRON.  49 

taken  at  his  word.  This  increased  the  alarm 
of  the  boy,  who  cried  at  the  top  of  his  voice  to 
his  wife,  who  was  out  of  the  house  at  the  time. 
In  a  moment  she  was  at  the  side  of  her  dead 
husband,  and  closed  his  sightless  eyes  with  her 
own  hands,  and  with  the  help  of  the  boy  laid 
his  dead  body  on  the  bed,  before  she  warned 
the  neighbors. 

This  unexpected  death  blasted  the  hopes  of 
the  pilgrim  boy,  both  as  to  wealth  and  educa- 
tion. The  old  man  died  without  a  will  such 
as  he  intended  to  make.  He  had  made  one 
before  he  took  this  boy ;  but  he  could  neither 
read  nor  write,  and  thought  it  was  destroyed. 
After  his  death  it  came  to  light,  and  gave  his 
estate  to  a  distant  relation.  The  boy  now  saw 
no  hope  of  rising  in  the  world,  except  by  his 
own  industry.  He  still  lived  with  the  old 
lady,  but  had  to  stop  going  to  school,  and  work 
hard  for  his  living.  He  was  set  to  ploughing 
before  he  was  eleven  years  old.  His  lot  seem- 
ed to  be  a  hard  one.  It  led  him  to  pray  to 
God  for  direction,  and  read  his  word  for  a 
while ;  and  to  others  he  seemed  to  be  a  relig- 
ious boy. 

At  this  time  he  felt  a  great  desire  to  become 

Pil   Boy.  4 


50  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

a  preacher,  and  tried  many  ways  to  satisfy  him- 
self whether  he  was  a  Christian.  Sometimes 
he  would  go  away  into  the  woods  alone,  and 
ask  God  to  speak  to  him  in  an  audible  voice, 
and  tell  him  whether  he  would  be  saved  or  lost. 
Sometimes  he  would  quit  praying,  lest,  if  he 
should  be  lost,  it  should  increase  his  misery. 
At  other  times  he  would  conclude  to  pray  OD, 
and  do  all  he  could,  that  if  he  should  be  sent 
to  hell,  his  sufferings  might  be  less.  He  con- 
tinued in  this  state  of  mind  for  nearly  three 
years,  sometimes,  deeply  impressed  about  his 
eoul,  at  other  times  careless.  For  a  week  or 
two  he  would  pray  night  and  morning,  often 
for  a  long  time,  to  make  up  for  his  neglect  at 
other  times.  During  this  period  he  read  all 
the  books  he  could  get,  although  he  had  no 
time  except  in  stormy  weather,  and  at  night 
by  fire-light.  But  with  these  very  limited  op' 
portunities,  before  he  was  fifteen  he  had  read 
through  a  good  circulating  library  that  was 
kept  in  the  neighborhood,  and  had  acquired 
more  general  information  than  most  boys  in 
the  community  where  he  lived. 

But  a  still  greater  trial  came  on  him  before 
lie  was  thirteen  years  old.     A  fearful  epidemic 


DEATH  OF  HIS  PATRON.  51 

broke  out  in  that  part  of  the  country,  and  his 
own  kind  mother,  who  had  married  again,  and 
lived  six  miles  from  him,  was  one  of  the  first 
victims  of  it.  He  heard  of  her  sickness  but  a 
few  hours  before  her  death ;  and  so  great  was 
the  panic,  he  was  not  allowed  to  see  her,  or 
even  attend  her  funeral,  except  to  look  on  at 
a  distance.  When  the  funeral  services  were 
over,  he  went  into  the  woods  alone,  and  rolled 
on  the  ground  in  agony.  No  tongue  could 
express  the  deep  sorrows  of  that  boy's  heart, 
as  he  beheld  the  funeral  procession  move  slowly 
along  to  the  last  resting-place  of  the  dead.  He 
was  truly  an  orphan,  without  father  or  mother, 
cast  on  the  charities  of  a  cold  world,  with  no 
property  to  depend  on ;  and  worse  than  all,  he 
was  an  enemy  to  God.  He  prayed,  and  prayed 
again ;  night  and  morning  his  agonizing  cry 
went  up  to  God,  besides  many  times  through 
the  day.  Still  his  way  was  dark,  and  he  felt 
as  if  God  was  dealing  hard  by  him,  as  all  unre- 
newed  hearts  feel  when  God  afflicts  them.  He 
felt  that  God  was  angry  with  him ;  and  in  or- 
der to  please  him,  he  read  and  prayed  more. 
While  other  boys  were  at  their  play,  he  was  at 
his  books*  On  Sabbath  he  was  always  at 


53  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

church  when  there  was  preaching,  and  con- 
stantly at  the  monthly  examinations,  and  could 
repeat  several  catechisms  throughout.  But 
with  all,  he  was  an  enemy  to  God ;  he  served 
him  through  fear,  and  not  from  love. 

But  God's  providences  are  often  v^ery  myste- 
rious, and  the  greatest  blessings  we  receive, 
come  in  the  shape  of  disappointment.  Many 
men  who  are  now  of  no  use  to  church  or  state, 
had  they  been  left  to  struggle  in  poverty  in 
boyhood,  and  been  thrown  upon  their  own  re- 
sources, might  now  have  been  filling  high  posi- 
tions. The  wealth  of  their  parents  proved 
their  ruin.  "  Come  easy,  go  easy,"  is  an  old 
proverb,  and  generally  true ;  and  when  their 
property  is  gone,  having  no  character,  they 
have  nothing  left.  The  poor  boy  depends  on 
his  own  energy,  and  by  it,  with  God's  blessing, 
builds  up  his  own  fortune  and  character.  The 
death  of  the  pilgrim  boy's  earthly  benefactor 
was  doubtless  the  means  of  developing  in  him 
a  more  noble  character,  and  of  drawing  him 
from  trusting  in  man,  to  rely  more  on  God. 
The  death  of  a  praying  mother  must  be  regarded 
as  a  great  calamity,  and  we  have  to  leave  it 
among  the  unexplained  mysteries  of  God's 


DEATH  OF  HIS  PATRON.  53 

providence  in  this  life.  In  eternity  it  will  be 
doubtless  explained  to  our  entire  satisfaction. 

This  boy  had  been  taught  to  call  on  God  in 
the  day  of  trouble,  arid  when  it  came,  he  resort- 
ed to  prayer  for  relief.  Have  you  been  taught, 
my  dear  boy,  to  pray,  and  do  you  still  continue 
this  habit ;  or  are  you  beginning  to  forget,  or 
wilfully  neglect  it?  If  you  neglected  it  last 
night,  it  will  be  easier  to  omit  it  to-night,  and 
thus  in  a  short  time  you  will  be  a  prayerless 
boy ;  you  will  lie  down  at  night  and  rise  in 
the  morning  like  a  poor  dumb  brute,  and  live 
as  if  there  was  no  God.  A  little  boy  living 
without  prayer,  is  like  a  boat  in  the  midst 
of  the  mighty  ocean  without  a  rudder  or  pilot, 
tossing  before  the  furious  waves,  soon  to  sink 
and  rise  no  more.  Beware  of  the  first  neglect 
of  prayer. 

The  prayer  of  the  poor  publican  was  among 
the  best  prayers  ever  offered :  "  God  be  merci- 
ful to  me  a  sinner."  He  felt  what  he  said,  and 
God  answered  him  in  mercy.  And  you  must 
look  to  God  to  make  you  feel  that  you  are  a 
sinner,  for  before  you  feel  this  you  will  never 
pray  aright.  But  you  must  not  make  it  an 
excuse  to  neglect  the  duty  because  you  cannot 


54  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

pray  aright,  for  praying  will  make  you  quit 
sinning,  or  sinning  will  make  you  quit  praying. 
The  pilgrim  boy  often  prayed  while  he  was  in 
trouble  very  earnestly ;  and  so  do  many  other 
boys ;  but  as  soon  as  the  trouble  is  past,  they 
forget  to  pray  till  some  new  danger  threatens 
them.  This  shows  that  they  have  no  real  love 
to  God  in  their  hearts,  and  without  the  heart 
prayer  cannot  be  acceptable  to  God. 


HE  BECOMES  PROFANE.  55 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  PILGRIM  BOY  BECOMES  PROFANE,  AND 
LEARNS  TO  CHEW  TOBACCO. 

IN  the  last  chapter,  we  traced  his  history 
through  severe  afflictions,  which  seemed  for  a 
time  to  be  sanctified  to  his  good.  He  had  be- 
come prayerful,  and  even,  hoped  at  times  that 
he  was  a  Christian.  But  alas,  he  knew  not  his 
own  wicked  heart.  Being  large  of  his  age, 
and  making  close  application  to  reading  and 
study,  he  was  said  to  be  the  smartest  boy  in 
the  neighborhood.  Ho  soon  began  to  think  so 
himself,  and  became  puffed  up  with  pride,  step- 
ped out  of  his  place,  and  spoke  when  he  should 
have  held  his  tongue.  Young  men  began  to 
associate  with  him,  and  even  to  look  up  to  him 
as  a  leader ;  many  of  them  were  very  profane, 
and  had  no  fear  of  God  before  them. 

The  pilgrim  boy  foolishly  thought  that  if 
he  could  swear  and  chew  tobacco,  he  should 
be  a  full-grown  man,  and  fit  for  all  classes  of 
society.  He  soon  began,  when  in  the  company 
of  the  profane,  to  imitate  them.  At  first  he 


56  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

swore  so  awkwardly  that  he  was  laughed  at  by 
those  who  had  long  been  addicted  to  this  vul- 
gar, God-insulting  vice.  Yet,  when  he  was 
alone,  especially  at  night,  he  would  be  afraid 
to  lie  down  in  a  dark  room,  lest  God  should 
cut  him  off,  and  send  him  to  hell.  He  would 
then  try  to  pray,  and  promise  God  he  would 
swear  no  more ;  but  when  he  would  meet  his 
profane  companions,  all  his  promises  were  for- 
gotten, and  he  would  even  venture  a  little  far- 
ther, till  by  degrees  conscience  became  almost 
stifled,  and  he  could  outs  wear  most  of  his  teach- 
ers ;  but  he  kept  it  secret  from  the  mother  who 
had  adopted  him,  and  from  religious  people. 

By  the  time  he  had  learned  to  swear  pretty 
scientifically,  he  had  also  learned  to  chew  to- 
bacco. All  this  was  accomplished  in  one  win- 
ter. He  was  so  far  schooled  in  these  vices 
by  the  spring  he  was  fifteen  and  a  half  years 
old,  that  he  was  fit  for  a  ringleader ;  and  he 
stepped  out  of  his  boy's  clothes,  booted  and 
spurred,  as  a  companion  of  young  men  and 
women.  How  different  the  prospects  of  the 
pilgrim  boy,  to  the  mind  of  every  reflecting 
man,  now  from  what  they  were  at  the  close  of 
the  last  chapter.  He  began  to  be  pointed  at 


HE  BECOMES  PROFANE.  57 

by  wicked  men  as  one  of  the  boys  who  was 
raised  so  strictly,  and  the  Christian  character 
of  his  good  old  mother  was  made  to  suffer  by 
his  wickedness.  But  was  he  happy  ?  No  ;  he 
was  at  times  the  most  miserable  boy  in  the 
community.  While  he  appeared  to  enjoy  his 
wickedness,  conscience  would  sting  him  like  a 
scorpion,  and  his  agony  at  times  was  almost 
insupportable. 

Are  you  a  boy  that  has  had  no  religious 
training?  Do  not  judge  the  inward  feelings 
of  those  boys  that  have  by  their  outward  con- 
duct. The  seeds  of  truth  sown  by  parental 
culture,  and  watered  by  prayer,  often  occasion 
them  bitter  sorrow  for  their  sins  when  you 
know  nothing  of  it.  The  Spirit  of  God  rouses 
them  to  think  of  death,  judgment,  and  eternity, 
and  echoes  back  on  them  the  prayers  of  pious 
parents,  dead  or  alive.  One  hour  of  their  bit- 
ter sorrow  outweighs  all  the  sinful  pleasures 
they  had  in  profaning  God's  name  in  your 
company.  I  know  that  wicked  boys  are  glad 
when  they  can  get  the  sons  of  pious  parents  to 
join  them  in  their  wickedness.  But  what  ben- 
efit can  you  derive  from  their  sins  ?  Will  it 
save  your  character  from  disgrace  in  the  sight 


58  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

of  good  men  ?  Will  it  save  you  from  the  death 
that  never  dies?  No,  my  dear  boy,  it  will  be 
no  relief  to  you  if  you  die  in  your  sins.  You 
have  to  stand  before  God  as  if  there  was  no 
other  being  on  earth  but  yourself. 

It  is  also  true,  that  the  influence  you  have 
exerted  on  others  will  have  much  to  do  with 
your  final  account.  That  oath  you  swore  has 
been  learned  and  repeated  by  some  other  boy, 
and  he  has  repeated  it  to  others,  and  its  con- 
sequences will  run  on  for  ever.  It  is  a  fearful 
thing  to  teach  bad  habits  to  others;  it  will 
plant  thorns  in  your  dying  pillow,  and  add  fuel 
to  the  fire  that  never  dies.  I  knew  a  boy  who 
learned  the  habit  of  profane  swearing  from  his 
father.  I  lived  near  him,  and  often  reproved 
him  for  his  awful  profanity.  He  threatened 
me  with  vengeance  when  he  should  become  a 
man,  because  I  would  not  let  a  nephew  of  mine 
associate  with  him.  As  he  increased  in  years 
he  became  more  and  more  profane,  till  none 
but  vicious  persons  would  be  seen  in  his  com- 
pany. At  the  age  of  twenty,  he  brought  on 
himself  a  sickness  which  ended  his  days.  He 
had  a  pious  mother,  who  saw  with  sorrow  her 
reprobate  son  declining  rapidly.  She  proposed 


HE  BECOMES  PROFANE.  59. 

to  send  for  some  one  to  pray  for  him.  He 
broke  out  with  oaths  and  blasphemies  ;  told  her 
he  should  soon  be  in  hell,  that  he  felt  the  fire 
that  would  never  be  quenched.  He  then  turned 
to  his  father,  cursed  him  to  his  face  for  neglect- 
ing to  teach  him  to  fear  God,  and  for  his  pro- 
fane example.  He  lingered  a  few  days  in  awful 
agony,  often  wringing  his  hands  and  gnashing 
his  teeth,  cursing  God  and  every  thing  around 
him.  At  his  dying-hour  the  scene  was  so  awful 
that  one  after  another  left  the  room,  till  even 
his  own  mother  fled  from  his  dying-bed,  while 
he  was  crying,  "  0  mother,  take  away  these 
devils ;  they  are  dragging  me  down  to  hell.  0 
mother,  save  me  ;"  but  he  was  left  to  die  alone. 
We  could  hear  his  blasphemies  outside  of  the 
house  till  his  breathing  ceased.  The  house 
seemed  to  be  surrounded  by  evil  spirits ;  every 
face  was  pale,  and  every  nerve  unstrung,  of  all 
that  were  within  hearing.  Many  years  have 
passed  since  this  sad  occurrence,  and  most  of 
those  then  present  are  in  their  graves ;  but  my 
heart  still  sickens  while  calling  up  the  impres- 
sions of  that  awful  scene. 

Do  any  boys  who  read  this  take  God's  name 
in  vain?    If  you  do,  he  says  he  will  not  hold 


•  60  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

you  guiltless.  You  must  abandon  such  a  dis- 
graceful habit,  so  provoking  to  God,  and  hate- 
ful in  the  sight  of  all  good  people.  If  any  sight 
on  earth  can  make  angels  weep,  I  think  it  is 
that  of  a  boy  strutting  through  the  streets  with 
a  segar  in  his  mouth,  belching  forth  vulgar 
oaths,  insulting  the  God  who  made  him,  and 
treating  the  law  written  with  his  own  finger 
with  contempt.  Such  a  habit  will  be  the  cause 
of  deep  and  bitter  repentance,  and  may  cling 
to  you  in  future  years,  to  your  shame,  and  to 
your  final  condemnation. 

Did  you  ever  think  that  every  oath  you  utter 
is  a  prayer  to  God  to  damn  you  ?  Suppose  he 
should  take  you  at  your  word,  and  answer  your 
prayer,  how  awful  it  would  be  in  hell,  to  think 
for  ever  that  you  received  just  what  you  prayed 
for.  Beware,  then,  of  this  sin.  It  was  the 
cause  of  much  sorrow  to  the  pilgrim  boy.  He 
found  by  painful  experience,  that  it  was  much 
harder  to  abandon  the  practice  than  to  contract 
it ;  and  so  will  all  that  have  ever  learned  to 
take  God's  name  in  vain. 


NEXT  STEP  IN  VICE.  61 

CHAPTER  IX 

THE  NEXT  STEP  IN  VICE  — CARD  PLAYING-. 

THE  pilgrim  boy  having  learned  to  swear 
and  chew  tobacco,  soon  found  there  were  other 
accomplishments  important  in  his  estimation  to 
fit  him  for  the  enjoyment  of  life.  About  this 
time  a  celebrated  gambler  came  into  the  neigh- 
borhood, with  the  first  pack  of  cards  this  boy 
had  ever  seen ;  he  soon  began,  with  a  few  other 
boys  and  young  men,  to  take  lessons  in  this 
new  science.  He  applied  himself  with  unceas- 
ing energy  for  six  months,  during  which  time 
he  made  extraordinary  progress,  and  felt  him- 
self fully  equipped  for  all  classes  of  society, 
except  in  the  want  of  money.  To  appear  to 
advantage  among  some  of  his  companions,  and 
to  engage  in  gambling,  required  a  little  means, 
while  all  the  money  he  had  in  the  world  was 
one  French  crown — worth  a  dollar  and  ten 
cents — which  he  had  received  for  partridges  he 
had  caught  and  sold. 

Though  these  gambling  operations  had  been 
carried  on  with  the  utmost  secrecy,  sometimes 


62  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

in  the  barn,  at  other  times  in  the  woods,  and  in 
the  spring  of  the  year  at  the  sugar  camps,  yet 
the  news  was  carried  to  the  ears  of  his  old 
mother.  For  a  time  a  strict  watch  was  kept 
over  him,  and  the  number  of  psalms  he  had  to 
commit  doubled,  to  prevent  his  having  time  to 
spare  for  this  new  science.  Her  plan  was  to 
fill  the  mind  with  God's  truth,  believing  it 
would  ultimately  cast  out  the  evil  of  the  heart, 
through  the  operations  of  his  Spirit.  For  some 
months  this  process  went  on,  but  the  inward 
struggle  was  a  very  severe  one;  the  force  of 
truth  coming  in  contact  with  the  inclinations  of 
an  tmrenewed  heart,  often  made  him  feel  life  a 
burden,  and  destroyed  every  enjoyment. 

Up  to  this  period,  the  pilgrim  boy  was  com- 
pelled to  attend  church  and  all  the  catechetical 
examinations  regularly,  besides  daily  fireside 
lectures,  which  resembled  very  much  the  warn- 
ing that  Nathan  gave  David,  "  Thou  art  the 
man." 

How  different  the  training  of  boys,  in  most 
cases  now.  Some  parents  will  go  to  church 
and  leave  their  sons  behind  ;  and  if  children  go 
to  Sunday-school,  they  too  often,  as  soon  as  it 
is  over,  seek  their  amusements.  As  to  learn- 


NEXT  STEP  IN  VICE.  63 

ing  the  catechism,  that  is  behind  the  age ;  and 
very  few  ministers  are  so  old-fashioned  as  to 
hold  monthly  examinations  and  expose  parents 
by  their  children's  ignorance  of  Bible  doctrines! 
To  send  children  to  a  schoolmaster  who  pos- 
sessed authority  to  make  them  learn  the  Bible 
and  catechism,  or  be  punished  with  the  rod, 
would  be  viewed  as  a  relic  of  the  dark  ages. 
In  too  many  cases,  teachers  dare  not,  and  par- 
ents will  not  control  their  sons,  and  thus  they 
grow  up  without  the  fear  of  God  or  man. 
From  this  unrestrained,  untaught  class  of  boys 
the  prison  and  gallows  get  their  victims,  and 
parents  their  broken  hearts. 

Dear  reader,  are  you  the  son  of  a  wealthy 
man,  and  do  you  receive  money  to  gratify  your 
desires?  Have  you  contracted  the  habit  of 
gambling,  attending  the  circus  and  theatre?  as 
we  may  justly  class  all  these  together.  If  sof 
you  have  taken  the  first  downward  step,  filled 
your  mind  with  false  ideas  of  life,  and  are  on 
the  road  to  ruin.  Few  that  have  contracted 
such  habits,  ever  become  pious;  they  grow  up 
proud  and  haughty,  despising  the  poor  who  toil 
for  their  living.  But  remember,  you  are  made 
of  the  same  clay,  and  descended  from  the  same 


64  THE  PJLaRIM  BOY. 

parents  originally.  It  was  God's  will,  and  not 
your  own  power,  that  made  the  difference.  But 
your  father's  wealth  is  no  security  for  the  per- 
manency of  years,  and  in  thousands  of  cases 
while  it  lasts  it  opens  the  way  to  a  class  of 
vices  of  the  most  dangerous  character. 

Go  and  ask  the  aged  how  many  of  the  sons 
of  the  wealthy  whom  they  knew  in  early  life,  are 
now  rich  old  men.  They  will  tell  you  not  one 
of  them  out  of  ten  is  alive,  and  less  than  even 
that  proportion  of  them  that  do  live,  are  rich ; 
many  of  them  are  in  deep  poverty.  They  grew 
up  in  idleness  as  you  are  doing  now,  and  when 
their  money  was  gone,  they  were  too  idle,  or 
their  constitutions  too  much  broken  down,  to 
work,  and  they  are  now  the  poorest  of  the  poor. 
Suppose  you  were  to  start  in  company  with  a 
poor  but  industrious  boy,  to  seek  a  situation  as 
a  clerk,  or  to  occupy  some  important  place  of 
trust.  No  doubt  you  think  your  position  as 
the  son  of  a  wealthy  man  would  give  you  a  de* 
cided  advantage  over  him  in  getting  a  place. 
In  this  you  probably  would  be  very  much  mista- 
ken ;  he  would  get  ten  to  employ  him  before  you 
would  find  one,  and  be  entrusted  with  the  keys 
of  his  employer's  desk  when  you  would  not. 


NEXT  STEP  IN  VICE.  65 

Two  boys  called  one  morning  on  a  merchant 
who  wanted  some  one  to  collect  bills.  The 
first  one  was  finely  dressed,  with  a  nice  cane  in 
his  hand,  a  cigar  in  his  mouth,  and  a  letter  of 
high  commendation  from  his  mother.  The 
merchant  eyed  him  closely  and  declined  to 
employ  him,  as  he  saw  something  like  a  pack 
of  cards  in  his  pocket.  In  a  short  time  another 
boy,  bareheaded  and  barefooted,  stood  before 
the  same  merchant,  and  asked  him  if  he  did 
not  want  a  boy.  He  replied  that  he  did.  The 
boy's  eye  sparkled  at  the  reply.  But  said  the 
merchant,  "I  want  a  recommendation."  The 
poor  boy  had  not  thought  of  that.  In  a  mo- 
ment the  tear  stood  in  his  eye.  He  said,  "My 
poor  mother  is  sick,  and  I  want  something  to 
do  to  earn  her  bread."  The  merchant  was 
moved  with  the  boy's  tale,  and  said,  "  Can  you 
not  get  some  one  who  knows  you  to  testify  to 
your  character?"  The  boy  pulled  out  of  his 
pocket  a  well  worn  Testament;  on  the  title 
page  was  written, 4:  Given  as  a  reward  of  merit 
to  a  good  boy,  by  his  Sunday-school  teacher." 
He  was  employed  at  once,  and  is  now  a  rich 
merchant. 

The  writer  has  conversed  with  many  business 

Pi!.  Bof .  5 


66  THE  PILG-RIM  BOY. 

men  of  experience  on  this  point,  who  say  that 
more  than  half  the  boys  of  wealth  became  dis- 
honest, and  leave  in  disgrace.  The  reason  is, 
they  have  contracted  habits  of  gambling,  by 
which  they  squander  their  money ;  and  to  keep 
up  a  supply,  resort  to  their  employer's  desk  for 
more,  with  the  hope  of  winning  back  their 
losses.  Failing  to  do  this,  their  dishonesty  is 
soon  detected.  No  doubt  they  intended,  when 
the  first  was  taken,  to  return  it ;  and  in  this 
way  relieved  their  conscience  by  calling  it  a 
short  loan,  to  be  paid  as  soon  as  the  wheel  of 
fortune  would  favor  them,  or  supplies  came  in 
from  home.  In  the  mean  time,  the  gratifica- 
tion of  other  desires  has  absorbed  all  they  hon- 
estly received,  and  the  drawer  not  being  able  to 
speak  and  claim  its  own  like  other  creditors,  is 
left  unpaid  till  its  gaunt  appearance  awakens 
the  employer's  suspicions,  and  the  boy  is  sent 
home  in  disgrace,  to  lounge  in  idleness  and 
squander  his  intended  patrimony. 

Among  all  the  vices  to  which  human  nature 
is  addicted,  perhaps  no  one  is  so  certain  to 
bring  ruin  for  both  time  and  eternity  as  this, 
and  no  one  so  fascinating.  When  a  youth  is 
once  within  the  sweep  of  this  mighty  whirlpool, 


NEXT  STEP  IN  VICE.  .        67 

every  day  gives  new  impetus  to  his  downward 
course,  and  an  escape  is  almost  miraculous. 
Indeed,  nothing  but  the  grace  of  God  will  save 
him.  Nothing  is  more  dreaded  by  business 
men  than  to  have  in  their  employ  boys  or  young 
men  addicted  to  this  vice,  and  if  known,  no 
gambling  youth  would  be  employed  in  any 
place  of  trust.  Card-playing,  like  the  locomo- 
tive, draws  a  long  train  after  it — theft,  drunk- 
enness, licentiousness,  highway  robbery,  mur- 
der, the  prison,  and  the  gallows;  and  it  gene- 
rally does  its  work  in  a  short  time. 

Let  us  trace  the  process.  See  some  fine  look- 
ing boys  standing  round  looking  at  others  play- 
ing cards,  it  may  be  for  amusement ;  it  looks  to 
them  like  a  pleasant  one.  The  next  evening 
they  meet,  and  propose  to  try  the  cards ;  they 
take  their  first  lesson.  In  a  short  time  they 
become  initiated  into  the  art ;  they  begin  to 
play  for  an  orange  or  an  apple  at  first ;  some 
one  gains  it ;  this  encourages  him  to  risk  more 
at  the  next  meeting,  and  the  others  try  to  win 
back  their  losses.  Their  feelings  have  now 
become  excited ;  their  little  pieces  of  pocket- 
money  are  now  staked ;  the  gainer  becomes 
elated — the  loser  hopes  for  better  success  next 


68  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

time,  and  perhaps  stakes  all  he  has.  The  next 
evening  he  wants  more  money ;  a  lie  must  be 
told  to  his  father  or  mother  to  get  it:  or,  if  he 
is  a  clerk,  he  borrows  it  out  of  the  drawer,  in- 
tending to  pay  it  next  day ;  but  alas,  the  wheel 
of  fortune  has  turned  the  wrong  way — that  is 
gone  too.  Another  lie  must  be  told  at  home, 
or  another  loan  from  the  drawer  follows,  till 
supplies  are  stopped  at  home  and  the  loans 
from  the  drawer  are  detected,  and  the  youth  is 
expelled  from  the  establishment. 

He  now  begins  to  cast  about  how  to  get  sup- 
plies, in  the  hope  he  may  retrieve  his  bad  luck. 
He  resolves  to  enter  a  store  by  the  back  way. 
The  money  is  soon  obtained,  and  in  one  night 
gone.  Another  draft  is  needed,  and  this  pro- 
cess renewed  again  and  again.  At  last  it  be- 
comes known  that  some  man  has  a  large  amount 
of  money  in  his  house.  At  the  midnight  hour 
the  gambler  enters,  armed  to  the  teeth ;  in  a 
few  moments  the  unsuspecting  family  are  wel- 
tering in  their  blood,  and  their  money  is  gone. 
Next  day  the  whole  community  are  shocked  at 
the  sad  intelligence,  but  no  clue  as  yet  to  the 
murderer.  He  has  gone  to  the  card-table,  or 
faro-bank.  The  large  amount  of  money  in  his 


NEXT  STEP  IN  VICE.  69 

possession  awakens  suspicion ;  tlio  matter  is 
hinted  at  quietly.  Mr.  A  comes  to  Mr.  B  and 
buys  a  bill  of  goods,  hands  him  a  twenty-dollar 
note.  "  Who  did  you  get  that  note  from,  Mr. 
B?  Mr.  C,  who  was  murdered,  got  that  note 
from  me  last  week ;  I  put  my  name  on  it,  as  I 
had  never  seen  one  like  it  on  that  bank.77  Mr. 
B  got  it  from  Mr.  D,  and  thus  it  is  traced  back 
to  the  murderer.  He  is  arrested.  All  the 
circumstances  are  clear ;  a  jury  of  his  country 
condemn  him  to  death.  In  a  few  weeks  he 
ascends  the  scaffold,  and  is  launched  into  eter- 
nity. Perhaps  he  has  a  father  and  mother  who 
have  spent  all  they  had  to  save  his  life,  but  in 
vain.  They  sink  in  sorrow  to  the  grave  ;  other 
friends  blush  to  hear  his  name.  My  dear  boys, 
this  is  no  fancy  sketch,  but  the  statement  of  a 
fact  known  to  the  writer. 

You  have  seen,  from  the  history  of  the  pil- 
grim boy,  the  narrow  escape  he  made  from  ruin 
by  this  vice ;  and  as  far  as  we  can  see,  nothing 
but  the  want  of  money  saved  him.  The  mania 
for  gambling  had  got  such  complete  control  of 
him,  that  he  often  sat  up  all  night  and  played 
till  he  lost  all  his  tobacco ;  and  if  he  had  had 
any  money,  or  could  have  obtained  it,  he  would 


70  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

have  spent  it  too.  Let  me  entreat  you  to  shun 
cards  as  you  would  a  scorpion ;  touch  not  the 
deadly  torpedos,  or  they  will  produce  a  moral 
paralysis  that  will  deaden  the  soul  to  every 
virtuous  emotion,  harden  the  heart  to  every 
other  vice,  and  blot  out  every  hope  of  heaven. 
Very  recently  the  writer  was  sitting  alone  in 
a  dark  room,  when  it  was  entered  by  six  men, 
all  intoxicated,  noted  gamblers,  when  the  fol- 
lowing conversation  took  place  among  them. 
"  Well,  Jack,  how  much  do  you  make  and  lose 
each  year?"  "Last  year  a  little  over  $5,000." 
"Bob,  how  much  do  you  handle  annually?" 
"Why,  for  the  last  five  years,  over  $40,000  a 
year,  and  I  am  often  without  one  cent ;  and  I 
tell  you,  boys,  I  have  been  at  it  fifteen  years, 
and  yet  am  not  worth  one  dollar  in  the  world 
to-night ;  and  during  the  whole  time  I  have  not 
seen  one  day  of  happiness.  I  might  as  well  be 
in  hell,  and  I  care  not  how  soon  I  die."  This 
led  to  a  general  expression  of  their  feelings ; 
all  spoke  of  their  misery  :  their  property  gone, 
nothing  to  depend  on  but  the  uncertainties  of 
the  card-table  and  faro-banks,  and  half  of  them 
with  families  to  support.  Any  vice  continued 
in  will  bring  ruin,  but  none  more  certainly  than 


NEXT  STEP  IN  VICE.  71 

this,  for  it  brings  all  others  in  the  train  with  it. 
"  Go  not  in  the  way  of  transgressors  ;"  "  abstain 
from  all  appearance  of  evil,"  is  the  advice  of 
the  God  that  made  you,  and  of  the  Son  of  God 
who  died  to  redeem  you.  May  God  add  his 
blessing,  and  save  the  reader  from  this  soul- 
destroying  vice. 


72  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

CHAPTER   X. 

UNIVERSALISM— BAD  BOOKS. 

WE  have  now  traced  the  pilgrim  boy  as  he 
advanced  step  by  step,  and  we  find  conscience, 
God's  vicegerent,  is  still  at  work,  and  the 
struggle  severe.  Often,  when  alone,  he  would 
weep  and  pray,  resolve  to  break  off  sin  and 
turn  to  God ;  but  in  a  few  hours  more,  he  would 
wish  he  had  never  seen  a  Bible,  or  that  those 
portions  of  it  that  condemn  his  sins  had  been 
left  out.  At  other  times,  he  would  try  to  per- 
suade himself  that  the  Bible  was  not  true.  In 
this,  Satan  was  always  ready  to  suggest  doubts 
and  difficulties ;  he  thought  more  about  Melchis- 
edek  and  the  witch  of  Endor  than  about  Jesus 
Christ.  Up  to  this  time  he  had  never  met  any 
one  that  denied  the  great  evangelical  truths  of 
Christianity,  nor  had  he  read  any  books  on  re- 
ligious subjects  but  such  as  taught  those  truths. 

About  this  time  he  met  an  old  schoolmate, 
some  years  older  than  himself,  who  had  recently 
married  into  a  Universalist  family,  and  was 


UNIYERSALISM  AND  BAD  BOOKS.  73 

full  of  zeal  for  this  new  faith.  He  soon  advanc- 
ed his  sentiments,  the  same  that  Satan  preached 
in  Eden,  but  new  to  the  pilgrim  boy,  who  lis- 
tened with  deep  interest  while  his  friend  ex- 
plained this  new  religion.  His  conscience 
could  not  assent  to  it,  although  he  wished  it 
might  be  true,  as  it  would  suit  him  exactly. 
He  felt  the  want  of  some  kind  of  religion,  and 
one  that  would  allow  him  to  sin  as  much  as  he 
pleased  would  just  suit  him,  if  it  were  only  true. 
They  continued  a  warm  discussion,  the  pilgrim 
boy  bringing  up  all  the  scriptures  he  could  to 
prove  the  eternal  punishment  of  the  wicked, 
and  the  other  explaining  them  away.  All  the 
time  the  boy  felt  a  strong  desire  that  his  friend 
should  remove  all  doubt  from  his  mind,  and 
even  looked  forward  with  a  delightful  antici- 
pation to  the  commission  of  sins  he  had  always 
shrunk  from  before,  provided  he  could  be  con- 
vinced the  doctrine  was  true. 

His  friend  finally  proposed  to  lend  him  a 
book  on  the  subject,  which  he  took  very  cheer- 
fully. It  was  Ballou's  "  Treatise  on  the  Atone- 
ment of  Christ."  He  read  it  with  great  delight. 
Before  he  was  half  through  the  book,  he  began 
to  lay  plans  for  the  gratification  of  all  the  evil 


74  THE  PILG-RIM  BOY. 

desires  of  his  heart.  He  felt  moral  restraint 
nearly  gone,  and  entered  on  the  commission  of 
sins  that  would  have  made  him  shudder  a  week 
before. 

As  soon  as  he  read  the  book  he  returned  it, 
and  got  Ballou's  u  Notes  on  the  Parables/7  and 
read  with  delight  till  he  came  to  the  parable  of 
the  rich  man  and  Lazarus,  when  all  his  hopes 
seemed  to  be  blasted.  The  reasoning  seemed 
foolish  and  absurd  in  the  extreme,  and  he  was 
sadly  disappointed ;  he  had  hoped  the  author 
would  make  that  as  plain  as  he  had  his  other 
arguments,  and  that  thus  he  might  sin  with 
impunity.  He  had  frequent  interviews  with 
his  friend,  who  did  all  he  could  to  remove  his 
doubts.  As  a  last  resort,  his  friend  advised 
him  to  advocate  the  doctrine  with  the  ortho- 
dox, and  he  would  soon  get  to  believe  it.  Will- 
ing to  do  any  thing  that  would  allow  him  to 
sin  with  an  easy  conscience,  he  followed  the 
advice.  For  four  years  he  was  spouting  Uni- 
versalisrn  on  every  occasion,  and  no  doubt  led 
some  into  that  soul-destroying  error.  Still,  his 
conscience  was  not  at  ease  ;  a  still  small  voice 
was  whispering,  "The  soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall 
die."  When  in  company  with  his  wicked  corn- 


TJNIVERSALISM  AND  BAD  BOOKS.  75 

panions,  lie  could  roll  sin  as  a  sweet  morsel 
under  his  tongue ;  but  when  alone,  hell  would 
seem  to  flash  up  before  him  with  all  its  horrors, 
and  the  pains  of  a  guilty  conscience  for  one 
hour  would  overbalance  all  the  sinful  pleasures 
of  a  week. 

For  four  years  the  pilgrim  boy  thus  hazarded 
the  consequences  of  losing  his  soul.  He  finally 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  would  not  in- 
dulge in  sins  that  would  affect  his  character 
in  the  sight  of  men,  and  spent  hours  in  fix- 
ing up  a  hell  of  his  own,  until  he  believed  it 
was  just  such  a  place  as  he  wished  it  to  be ; 
and  then  he  put  the  awful  question  to  his  own 
soul,  whether  he  would  take  it  as  his  portion 
hereafter,  with  the  indulgence  of  sinful  pas- 
sions during  life,  or  forsake  sin  and  lead  a 
holy  life,  and  enjoy  a  glorious  heaven  after 
death. 

For  more  than  a  year  his  mind  was  exer- 
cised on  this  question,  and  the  scales  rose  and 
fell  in  proportion  to  the  power  of  the  convic- 
tion of  sin,  or  the  inclination  to  yield  to  temp- 
tation. There  seemed  to  be  two  great  powers 
at  work  in  his  heart,  one  striving  to  lead  him 
deeper  into  sin,  the  other  crying  in  his  ear, 


76  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

"Turn  ye.  turn  ye;  why  will  you  die?"  But 
blessed  be  God,  the  former  grew  weaker  by- 
degrees,  while  the  latter  increased  in  power. 
The  struggle  was  long  and  fierce,  whether  to 
embrace  a  flesh-pleasing,  or  a  flesh-crucifying 
system  of  religion. 

The  next  danger  to  which  we  wish  to  gain 
your  attention,  as  drawn  from  the  history  of 
this  boy,  is  the  danger  of  BAD  BOOKS.  A  bad 
book  must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be  written 
by  a  bad  man  or  woman,  since  "a  good  tree 
cannot  bring  forth  evil  fruit.77  Hence,  the  time 
you  spend  in  reading  a  bad  book  is  so  much 
time  spent  in  company  with  a  bad  character, 
and  }'ou  cannot  come  in  contact  with  filth  with- 
out some  of  it  sticking  to  you.  Your  life  and 
conduct  will  reflect  the  kind  of  company  you 
keep,  and  the  books  you  read.  Reading  the 
novel  "  Jack  Sheppard  "  formed  the  character 

of  3*oung  S ,  and  prepared  him  to  become  a 

pirate,  who  was  hung  at  the  yard-arm  of  a 
man-of-war  a  few  years  since.  Go  to  the  con- 
victs cell,  and  ask  what  kind  of  books  he  has 
read.  He  will  tell  }rou,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten, 
if  he  has  read  any,  that  he  has  read  bad  books  ; 
tales  of  crime  portrayed  in  glowing  colors. 


UNIVERSALISM  AND  BAB  BOOKS.    77 

which  roused  the  evil  passions  and  unholy  de- 
sires that  had  lain  apparently  dormant  in  tho 
heart. 

The  reading  of  bad  books  has  done  more 
during  the  last  twenty  years,  in  our  country,  to 
poison  the  minds  of  young  men,  lower  the 
standard  of  high  moral  rectitude,  and  shut  tho 
heart  against  the  word  and  Spirit  of  God,  than 
almost  any  other  evil  in  the  land.  Show  me 
the  youth  that  pores  over  tales  of  fiction,  and 
drinks  their  intoxicating  poison,  and  I  will 
show  you  a  fictitious  character,  vacillating  and 
unreliable.  "  Show  me  your  company,  and  I 
will  tell  you  your  character/''  is  an  adage  old 
and  true.  A  family  library  is  an  index  to  fam- 
ily character  ;  the  bookcase  reflects  the  moral 
features.  Better  not  read  at  all,  than  read  bad 
books. 

Among  all  the  classes  of  dangerous  books, 
none  are  more  fatal  than  those  that  oppose 
evangelical  religion  ;  and  the  nearer  the  coun- 
terfeit comes  to  the  genuine,  it  is  the  harder  to 
detect. 

Look  again  at  the  pilgrim  boy  tangled  in  the 
meshes  of  Universalism,  with  an  old  barbed 
arrow  of  truth  in  his  conscience,  holding  him 


78  TEE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

in  check  at  times,  while  at  others  he  was  able 
to  give  loose  to  his  feelings  altogether.  Of  all 
the  false  systems  of  religion  ever  devised  by 
man,  none  is  better  suited  to  gratify  depraved 
human  nature.  Denying  punishment  for  sin 
hereafter,  it  gives  the  reins  to  every  lust,  grat- 
ifies every  unholy  desire,  and  in  the  end  re- 
wards the  meanest  and  vilest  of  earth  with  a 
seat  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 

The  man  who  lent  Universalist  books  to  the 
pilgrim  boy,  before  he  embraced  that  system, 
had  been  as  moral  a  young  man  as  could  be 
found  in  the  community ;  but  as  soon  as  he 
became  a  Universalist,  he  threw  off  all  re- 
straint, indulged  in  sin  with  greediness,  and 
died  before  he  reached  the  meridian  of  life, 
uncared  for  by  any  except  his  own  family.  He 
had  instilled  into  the  minds  of  his  children  the 
same  poison,  and  they  have  walked  in  his  foot- 
steps. 

The  writer  knew  many  that  were  Universal- 
ists  thirty-five  years  ago,  and  their  history 
now  would  be  dreadful  to  relate.  The  very 
man  who  first  taught  the  doctrine  in  that  com- 
munity said,  the  day  he  died,  if  he  had  ten 
thousand  worlds,  he  would  give  them,  could  it 


ITNIVERSALISM  AND  BAD  BOOKS.          79 

undo  the  evil  lie  had  done.  He  died  in  agony 
of  soul.  His  sons  embraced  the  same  system, 
and  have  long  since  gone  to  a  drunkard's  grave. 
The  first  convert  he  made  died  a  similar  death 
soon  after,  and  his  dissipated  sons  have  long 
been  members  of  an  infidel  club.  Thus  the 
history  runs,  with  few  exceptions.  Is  it  pos- 
sible that  a  system  of  religion  which  produces 
such  results  proceeds  from  a  holy  God?  I 
warn  you,  by  all  the  terrors  of  the  worm  that 
never  dies,  to  read  no  such  books  ;  you  can  no 
more  read  them  without  injury  to  yourself,  than 
you  can  take  hold  of  fire  without  being  burned. 
Enough  of  evil  grows  naturally  in  the  heart; 
you  can  go  to  ruin  fast  enough  by  simply  letting 
religion  alone  ;  the  depravity  of  the  unrencwed 
heart  has  motive  power  enough,  without  the 
aid  of  any  external  force.  When  you  take 
away  the  doctrine  of  future  punishment  from  a 
religious  creed,  you  take  away  the  last  hope  of 
a  virtuous  life. 

I  especially  entreat  you  to  shun  all  books 
that  advocate  false  systems  of  religion,  or  in 
any  way  attempt  to  undervalue  evangelical 
piety.  Let  the  Bible  be  your  daily  companion, 
and  make  yourself  familiar  with  such  books  as 


80  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

have  been  written  by  the  best  of  men  on  doc- 
trinal and  practical  piety,  together  with  biog- 
raphies of  the  best  men  that  have  lived  in  this 
or  other  ages,  and  follow  them  so  far  as  they 
have-followed  Christ.  There  are  few  who  can 
sit  down  and  read  carefully  the  lives  of  such 
men  as  McCheyne,  Summerfield,  Alexander, 
Martyn,  Brainard,  or  Page,  without  being  ben- 
efited. While  reading  their  lives,  you  are 
brought  in  contact  with  pure  and  holy  men, 
and  your  tastes  and  character  must  be  influ- 
\mced  by  them. 

From  the  age  of  sixteen  to  eighteen,  the  pil- 
grim boy's  struggle  with  Universalism  con- 
tinued. He  was  .still  trying  to  satisfy  himself 
that  Universalism  was  true ;  but  his  mind  had 
been  so  deeply  imbued  with  Bible  truth  in 
childhood,  that  thorough  unbelief  in  relation 
to  any  of  the  fundamental  truths  of  Christian- 
ity was  out  of  the  question.  Some  years  be- 
fore, when  quite  small,  he  had  made  many 
promises  to  God,  and  to  his  old  mother,  that 
ho  would  be  a  preacher ;  and  these  promises 
would  sometimes  rise  like  so  many  witnesses 
to  testify  against  him  before  God,  and  almost 


UN1VERSALISM  AND  BAD  BOOKS.  81 

drive  him  to  despair.  Nothing  seemed  to  have 
so  powerful  an  effect  in  restraining  him  from 
sin  as  those  broken  vows.  At  the  age  of  sev- 
enteen he  went  to  what  was  called  the  far 
West,  the  central  part  of  Ohio,  in  company 
with  a  very  wicked  young  man,  to  aid  him  in 
clearing  land,  and  to  spend  some  part  of  his 
time  in  hunting  deer  and  bears  among  the  Indi- 
ans. While  there  he  formed  the  acquaintance 
of  very  godless  young  men,  who  spent  the  Sab- 
bath in  hunting.  They  invited  him  to  join 
them,  but  he  was  frightened  at  the  thought  of 
thus  desecrating  God's  holy  day.  They  laughed 
at  his  religious  scruples,  and  told  him  Sunday 
had  not  got  so  far  west  yet.  He  could  not 
withstand  the  sneers  of  the  wicked,  and  by  the 
next  Sunday  had  his  gun  ready,  and  engaged  in 
the  chase.  But  it  was  a  day  of  awful  fore- 
bodings lest  some  sudden  judgment  should  fall 
on  him ;  he  was  afraid  to  shoot  for  fear  the 
gun  would  burst  and  kill  him  ;  he  felt  that  God 
would  be  just  to  consign  him  to  hell  for  that 
day's  sin,  and  was  astonished  that  he  was  per- 
mitted to  live.  The  day  passed  away,  and  as 
nothing  special  occurred,  by  the  return  of  the 
next  Sabbath  his  conscience  was  easier,  and  in 

Pil  Boy.  6 

f  * 


82  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

the  course  of  a  few  weeks  lie  could  hunt  on  that 
day  with  little  remorse. 

He  remained  six  months  in  the  West,  during 
which  time  he  saw  but  one  professor  of  relig- 
ion, and  heard  no  sermon,  and  conscience  had 
almost  ceased  to  warn.  When  he  returned 
home,  the  restraints  which  he  had  scarcely  felt 
before,  became  almost  intolerable ;  the  silence 
of  the  Sabbath  was  as  melancholy  as  a  funeral, 
and  he  longed  to  be  in  some  part  of  the  land 
where  the  restraints  of  religion  would  not  be 
felt,  and  all  the  appetites  and  passions  could 
be  indulged  by  public  consent. 

He  still  labored  to  throw  off  the  truths  of 
the  Bible  that  had  been  imbedded  in  his  mem- 
ory from  his  childhood,  and  to  invent  a  hell  of 
his  own  which,  if  it  did  turn  out  to  be  a  place 
or  torment,  would  not  be  intolerable,  and  flat- 
tered himself  that  he  would  gain  enough  of 
sinful  pleasure  to  compensate  for  the  loss  of 
heaven.  Oh,  the  trials  and  forebodings  of  a 
guilty  conscience  under  the  strivings  of  the 
Holy  Ghost;  how  unwilling  to  yield  to  the 
voice  of  God.  Oh,  how  astonishing  his  mercy 
and  love  to  continue  to  strive  with  such  a 
rebel. 


HIS  MARRIAG-E.  83 


CHAPTER  XI. 

CIRCUMSTANCES  THAT  LED  TO  HIS 
MARRIAG-E. 

WHEN  the  pilgrim  boy  arrived  at  eighteen, 
he  began  to  cast  about  to  discover  what  pur- 
suit he  would  follow  in  after  life  that  would 
provide  for  his  wants,  and  at  the  same  time 
give  the  best  chance  for  sinful  gratifications. 
One  day  he  would  determine  to  go  into  the 
army  and  strive  for  military  renown,  and  the 
next  day  he  would  plan  something  else.  At 
that  time  he  lived  on  the  border  of  a  commu- 
nity where  there  was  much  dissipation.  Two 
or  three  nights  in  each  week  were  spent  in 
balls  or  at  the  card-table ;  and  he  never  felt 
happy  unless  he  was  engaged  in  something  of 
the  kind.  At  home  he  was  like  a  caged  bird  ; 
his  old  mother  so  frequently  reminded  him  of 
the  obligations  of  the  moral  law,  that  he  often 
wished  Moses  had  never  gone  back  to  have  it 
rewritten  after  the  first  tables  were  broken. 
He  tried  to  show  indifference  to  the  old  wom- 
an's counsel,  but  all  in  vain ;  he  often  felt  that 


84  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

life  was  almost  a  burden  when  his  sins  would 
rise  up  before  him.  For  a  time  he  would  not 
go  to  church  for  fear  the  preacher  would  say 
something  that  would  increase  his  distress  and 
mar  his  pleasures. 

At  last  he  resolved  to  go  to  sea,  with  the 
hope  of  getting  clear  of  the  old  woman's  lec- 
tures arid  all  other  religious  restraints,  and 
went  so  far  as  to  set  the  day  for  leaving,  with- 
out telling  any  one  of  his  intentions.  The  day 
came ;  his  whole  soul  was  convulsed ;  storms 
and  shipwrecks  rose  to  his  view  ;  the  thoughts 
of  being  buried  in  the  sea  and  being  devoured 
by  the  monsters  of  the  deep,  and  he  an  enemy 
to  God,  were  too  intolerable  to  bear.  He 
finally  resolved  to  go  and  ask  counsel  of  God, 
wicked  as  he  was,  what  course  lie  should  pur- 
sue. About  noon  he  went  to  the  woods  alone, 
in  a  state  of  mind  no  pen  can  describe,  to  lay 
his  case  before  Him  who  sees  the  end  from  the 
beginning. 

Some  time  before  this  he  had  met  with  a 
young  woman  who  had  made  a  deep  impression 
on  his  heart :  the  question  rushed  to  his  mind 
whether  it  would  not  be  better  to  remain  in 
the  country,  and  ask  her  hand  in  marriage, 


HIS  MARRIAGE.  85 

young  as  lie  was,  than  to  run  the  risk  of  a  sea- 
faring life.  He  at  once  carried  the  matter  to 
a  throne  of  grace,  and  soon  resolved  to  aban- 
don all  his  plans,  and  make  known  to  her  his 
wishes.  In  the  course  of  a  few  months  her 
consent  was  obtained. 

But  here  another  difficulty  arose :  how  was 
he  to  support  a  wife  ?  he  was  without  means, 
and  so  was  she.  But  both  had  been  brought 
up  to  hard  labor,  so  that  difficulty  soon  van- 
ished. This  engagement  made  him  look  at  life 
as  a  reality,  and  he  commenced  laboring  and 
saving  in  earnest. 

Notwithstanding  his  mind  was  tainted  with 
Universalism,  he  felt  the  necessity  of  praying 
much  over  this  matter,  as  the  Bible  says  a  good 
wife  is  from  the  Lord.  Before  he  was  twenty 
years  old  he  was  married,  and  felt  very  sen- 
sibly the  responsible  position  he  had  placed 
himself  in,  and  at  once  abandoned  all  his  for- 
mer evil  habits,  and  confined  himself  to  hard 
labor.  Though  we  would  not  recommend  mar- 
riage generally  at  so  early  an  age,  yet  it  was 
doubtless  the  means  of  saving  him  from  being 
a  wanderer,  and  in  all  probability  from  dissi- 
pation and  crime,  if  not  from  an  untimely  grave. 


86  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

How  inscrutable  is  the  providence  of  God,  and 
his  ways  past  finding  out!  It  is  not  in  man 
that  walketh  to  direct  his  steps. 

We  have  now  reviewed  the  most  precarious 
part  of  a  young  man's  existence — from  early 
youth  to  manhood.  Those  that  pass  twenty 
years  with  a  moral  character  unstained,  usually 
sustain  a  fair  character  through  life,  and  very 
few  of  those  whose  moral  and  religious  training 
is  neglected  in  childhood,  pass  that  period  with- 
out contracting  habits  or  forming  associations 
that  lead  to  disgrace  and  ruin.  When  the  com- 
paratively innocent  pleasures  of  boyhood  have 
been  changed  into  habits  of  sin,  these  habits 
choke  the  seed  of  truth  sown  with  parental  tears, 
watered  by  prayer,  and  often  brought  home  to 
the  heart  and  conscience  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 
We  see  this  youth  struggling  like  the  fish  on 
the  angler's  hook,  even  taking  the  anodyne  of 
Universalism  to  put  conscience  to  sleep,  some- 
times making  a  hell  to  suit  himself,  and  on  the 
eve  of  resolving  to  take  the  chance  of  it ;  and 
nothing  saved  him  but  God's  blessing  on  his 
own  truth  planted  in  his  mind  in  childhood. 

Now,  my  dear  young  friend,  if  you  are  or 
have  been  the  son  of  pious,  praying  parents,  or 


HIS  MARRIAGE.  87 

under  the  instructions  of  pious  ministers  or  Sab- 
bath-school teachers,  you  have  not  arrived  at 
this  age  without  some  concern  about  your  soul. 
You  have  felt  that  you  were  a  sinner.  Some- 
thing in  you  has  trembled  with  fear.  You 
were  alarmed  for  your  past  sins,  and  dreading 
the  wrath  of  God.  It  was  truth,  taught  you  by 
a  praying  father  or  mother,  or  read  and  heard 
in  some  way,  that  God's  Spirit  was  bringing 
home  to  your  heart  to  lead  you  from  sin  to 
himself.  When,  like  this  boy,  you  have  been 
tempted  to  tell  a  lie,  has  not  the  awful  truth, 
"  All  liars  shall  have  their  portion  in  the  lake 
that  burns  with  fire  and  brimstone,"  flashed  up 
before  you  with  awful  majesty?  And  when 
you  have  taken  God's  name  in  vain,  has  not  a 
voice  seemed  to  say,  "  The  Lord  will  not  hold 
him  guiltless  that  taketh  his  name  in  vain?" 
When  you  have  spent  the  Sabbath  of  God  in 
idleness  and  sin,  have  you  not  heard  the  same 
voice  say,  "  Remember  the  Sabbath-day  to  keep 
it  holy  ?"  It  was  the  voice  of  God  speaking 
by  his  Spirit  to  your  soul. 

When  you  have  seen  one  young  as  you  sicken 
and  die,  when  you  have  heard  the  funeral  bell 
toll,  or  followed  the  funeral  procession  to  the 


S3  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

grave,  and  heard  the  clay  fall  on  the  coffin, 
have  not  the  emotions  of  your  soul  been  inex- 
pressible? It  was  the  voice  of  God's  Spirit. 
When  you  have  lain  down  at  night  on  your 
bed,  have  you  not  tried  to  imagine  where  that 
soul  was  which  had  just  left  the  body?  Per- 
haps he  had  been  your  companion  in  sin.  Oh, 
would  you  not  have  given  half  a  kingdom  to 
know  all  that  soul  knew  in  a  few  hours?  Have 
not  these  terrible  thoughts  for  a  time  driven 
sleep  from  your  eyes,  and  led  you  to  pray  and 
promise  God  you  would  cease  from  sin,  and 
give  him  your  strength  and  talents,  yea,  life 
itself?  All  these  emotions  are  the  work  of 
God's  Spirit,  using  his  own  truth  and  the  dis- 
pensations of  his  providence  towards  others  as 
means  to  lead  you  to  repentance  and  deliver 
you  from  destruction. 

If  some  kind  friend  were  to  come  and  wake 
you  in  the  night  when  the  house  was  in  flames 
around  you,  and  tell  you  to  escape  speedily, 
would  you  not  flee  in  a  moment?  Could  you 
ever  forget  that  friend  ?  Would  not  the  sound 
of  his  voice  send  a  thrill  of  joy  through  your 
heart  ever  after  ?  Remember,  my  young  friend, 
that  although  you  heard  no  audible  voice  speak- 


HIS  MARRIAG-E.  89 

ing  to  the  outward  ear,  it  was  God's  Spirit,  the 
only  agency  that  can  save  you  from  eternal 
burning,  knocking  at  the  door  of  your  heart, 
and  saying,  Escape  for  your  life ;  escape  from 
the  fire  that  will  never  be  quenched,  to  which 
the  burning  of  your  body  would  bear  no  more 
proportion  than  the  flash  of  a  meteor  to  the 
burning  of  the  universe. 

And  have  you  resisted  these  influences,  and 
thus  "  grieved  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God?77  What 
strange  ingratitude!  The  same  kind  of  treat- 
ment to  one  of  your  companions  who  had  saved 
your  life,  would  expose  you  to  the  contempt  of 
all  good  men.  How  much  more  awful  to  con- 
template the  ingratitude  of  slighting  the  call 
of  God  your  Maker. 

But  are  there  not  great  aggravations  of  this 
slighting  of  the  Spirit  in  the  case  of  some? 
Those  who  know  their  Master's  will,  and  do  it 
not,  are  to  be  beaten  with  many  stripes.  Are 
you  not  conscious  that  what  you  felt  was  pro- 
duced by  the  Spirit  of  God  ?  Though  like  the 
wind  that  blows,  you  could  not  tell  whence  it 
came,  or  whither  it  went,  yet,  from  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Bible  and  your  own  experience,  do 
you  not  believe  it  was  from  the  influences  of 


90  THE  PILG-R1M  BOY. 

the  Holy  Ghost  ?  If  so,  then  are  you  not  guilty 
of  wilfully  slighting  the  Spirit  of  God  ?  Each 
rejection  of  the  Holy  Ghost  increases  your 
guilt,  and  increases  the  probabilities  of  your 
eternal  damnation. 

But  let  us  now  advance  a  step  farther  on  this 
fearful  subject,  and  suppose  that  you  have  not 
only  felt  deeply  for  an  hour,  or  a  day  ;  but  some 
particular  providence  of  God,  or  some  truth  of 
the  Bible  has  followed  you  from  day  to  day,  as 
they  did  the  pilgrim  boy,  sometimes  making 
life  an  intolerable  burden.  Perhaps  it  may  be 
the  prayers  and  advice  of  a  mother,  now  dead 
or  far  distant  from  you,  echoed  back  on  your 
soul  by  the  Spirit,  giving  you  no  peace,  but  cry- 
ing, "  Son,  give  me  thy  heart."  Or  it  may  be 
the  sermon  you  heard,  or  a  book  or  tract  you 
read,  or  the  warning  of  your  Sunday-school 
teacher  that  follows  you  as  it  never  did  before. 
This  is  what  is  called  the  special  operation  of 
God's  Spirit :  all  you  felt  before  may  have 
been  but  the  prelude  of  the  coming  struggle. 
But  now  your  wicked  heart  is  in  mortal  combat 
with  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  it  will  have  to  yield 
sooner  or  later,  for  life  or  death  eternal. 

Some  years  ago  the  writer  became  acquaint- 


HIS  MARR1AOE.  91 

ed  with  a  man  eminent  for  piety,  who  gave 
the  following  account  of  his  conversion  :  My 
father  died  when  I  was  fourteen  years  old  ;  my 
mother  was  left  with  seven  children,  of  which 
I  was  the  oldest.  She  was  a  devoted  Chris- 
tian, and  prayed  with  us  daily.  For  the  first 
two  or  three  years  after  the  death  of  my  father, 
I  often  felt  deeply  about  my  soul  for  a  short 
period,  but  when  about  sixteen,  I  was  deeply 
distressed  for  some  months,  and  prayed  regu- 
larly, and  even  thought  sometimes  I  was  a 
Christian.  About  this  time  balls  and  dancing 
parties  were  introduced  into  the  neighborhood, 
and  I  was  induced  by  my  companions  to  go. 
At  first  I  was  only  a  looker-on,  but  I  soon  joined 
the  sport,  and  all  my  religion  was  gone,  except 
some  fearful  pangs  of  conscience  that  wrould 
occasionally  return.  The  news  reached  my 
mother ;  she  warned  and  entreated,  but  all  in 
vain.  I  soon  began  to  be  impatient  of  her  re- 
proof, and  threatened  to  leave  her  if  she  did 
not  desist;  but  she  told  me  she  would  never 
cease  to  warn  and  pray,  and  that  if  I  did  go  to 
destruction,  I  should  wade  through  her  tears 
and  a  Saviour's  blood.  For  three  or  four  years 
she  warned  and  prayed,  and  I  danced  and  frol- 


92  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

icked  till  I  became  the  ringleader  in  every  vain 
amusement.  About  this  time  preparation  was 
made  for  a  great  ball,  and  I  was  to  be  one  of 
the  managers  of  it.  The  evening  came.  When 
I  was  about  to  leave,  my  mother  said,  "  Well, 
Jarnes,  remember  your  mother  will  spend  this 
night  in  prayer  for  you."  I  felt  a  little  sad, 
but  rode  off.  The  nearer  I  came  to  the  place 
the  worse  I  felt.  When  I  entered  the  room  I 
was  greeted  with  a  hearty  welcome,  but  I  felt 
depressed,  arid  my  appearance  betrayed  my 
feelings.  Inquiry  was  made  if  I  was  sick,  or 
what  was  the  matter.  I  replied,  "Nothing." 
The  violin  soon  struck  up  a  tune ;  I  was  to 
lead  off,  but  my  step  was  heavy.  The  company 
soon  partook  of  the  same  feeling,  and  one  began 
to  say  to  another,  What  is  the  matter?  My 
whole  soul  became  convulsed  ;  my  feelings  were 
unutterable;  I  burst  into  tears.  "I  can  tell 
you  what  is  the  matter  ;  my  mother  is  praying 
for  her  prodigal  son  at  home."  I  left  the 
house  and  hastened  back.  When  I  came  to 
the  door,  I  heard  the  voice  of  prayer;  my 
mother  was  pleading  with  God  for  me.  I 
opened  the  door  suddenly,  and  fell  before  her, 
crying,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner."  My 


HIS  MARRIAGE.  93 

burden  was  gone ;  she  looked  angelic ;  I  em- 
braced her,  and  we  rejoiced  together.  Her 
Saviour  was  my  Saviour,  her  God  my  God, 
our  joys  the  same. 

I  have  recorded  this  thrilling  fact,  supposing 
it  may  meet  the  case  of  some  of  my  youthful 
readers.  Here  was  the  special  operation  of 
God's  Spirit  making  the  instructions  and  pray- 
ers of  a  mother  effectual  to  her  son's  salvation. 
Have  not  many  of  you  had  feelings  correspond- 
ing with  the  early  experience  of  the  one  re- 
lated, and  of  the  pilgrim  boy?  One  thing  is 
certain,  that  if  you  have,  and  still  remain  an 
unconverted  sinner,  you  must  thus  come  to 
Christ  or  die  in  your  sins. 


94  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

HE  COMMENCES  FARMING— SEVERE  SICK- 
NESS— RESOLUTIONS  TO  REPENT  AND  LIVE 
BETTER. 

SOON  after  his  marriage  he  rented  some  land, 
and  with  one  horse  and  a  plough,  and  less  than 
one  hundred  dollars7  worth  of  household  furni- 
ture, started  in  the  world  to  support  himself 
and  wife.  Many  an  hour  of  deep,  anxious 
solicitude  he  had,  to  know  how  to  get  through 
the  world.  His  days  of  pleasure  seemed  to  be 
at  an  end ;  he  had  now  to  face  the  realities  of 
life.  He  labored  and  toiled  from  sunrise  to 
sunset,  daily  repeating  to  himself,  "There  is 
no  peace  to  the  wicked."  His  wife  was  equal- 
ly industrious,  and  all  went  on  as  well  as 
could  be  expected  for  those  that  were  so  poor. 
But  the  future  looked  dark  and  dreary.  Ho 
often  repined  at  his  lot,  and  even  wished  he 
had  never  been  born.  But  with  these  feelings 
he  had  an  abiding  conviction  for  sin ;  indeed, 
that  was  the  main  cause  of  his  anxiety. 


SICKNESS.  95 

Six  months  after  his  marriage  he  was  taken 
suddenly  very  ill.  The  doctor  came  seven 
miles  every  day  for  three  weeks  to  see  him, 
and  soon  pronounced  the  disease  incurable,  and 
said  he  must  die.  The  disease  was  inflamma- 
tory rheumatism ;  his  pain  of  the  most  excru- 
ciating kind ;  every  feature  was  distorted  with 
agony,  while  the  agony  of  soul  at  the  thought 
of  being  dragged  into  the  presence  of  God 
with  all  his  sins  unpardoned,  was  unspeakably 
more  terrible.  He  felt  that  he  deserved  the 
deepest  hell ;  that  he  had  shut  his  heart  against 
the  calls  of  God's  word  and  Spirit  a  thousand 
times.  The  Bible,  the  sermons,  and  pastor's 
counsel,  his  old  mother's  warnings,  and  the 
religious  books  he  had  read,  were  all  arrayed 
against  him  as  so  many  witnesses  for  God,  tes- 
tifying, I  have  called,  but  you  have  refused  ;  I 
have  stretched  my  hand  to  you,  but  you  have 
disregarded.  God  seemed  to  be  laughing  at 
his  calamity,  and  mocking  at  his  fears.  He 
felt  as  if  he  was  suspended  over  hell  for  some 
days  without  hope  of  escape,  a  helpless,  unpar- 
doned sinner  in  the  hands  of  an  angry  God, 
pursued  by  the  angel  of  death  and  his  own  con- 
science, saying  Amen  to  the  justice  of  his  dam- 


96  THE  PILG-RIM  BOY. 

nation.  All  the  pleasures  of  his  past  sins  could 
not  compensate  for  one  hour  of  his  present  ago- 
ny. It  seemed  as  if  his  past  sinful  enjoyments 
had  now  become  his  tormentors.  He  strove  to 
banish  them  from  his  sight  as  they  rose  up 
before  him  in  their  hideous  deformity,  but  the 
more  he  strove  the  closer  they  clung  to  him, 
and  drove  their  fangs  the  deeper.  In  this  state 
of  mind  he  tried  to  pray ;  but  there  seemed  to 
be  no  God  to  hear,  no  Saviour  to  intercede,  no 
Spirit  to  comfort  his  wretched  soul.  He  strove 
to  give  his  heart  to  God  in  the  midst  of  his  suf- 
ferings, and  promised,  if  God  would  spare  his 
life  and  restore  him  to  health,  he  would  conse- 
crate the  remainder  of  his  days  to  his  service. 

In  a  few  days  he  began  to  entertain  some 
hopes  of  his  recovery,  and  to  the  astonishment 
of  all  who  saw  him,  in  a  few  weeks  he  was  able 
to  walk  about  and  attend  a  little  to  business. 
By  his  long  sickness  his  crop  of  grain  was 
mostly  lost ;  the  doctor's  bill  amounted  to  near 
all  he  was  worth,  and  the  only  means  to  pro- 
vide for  his  family  was  by  engaging  as  a  day- 
laborer  till  he  could  raise  another  crop. 

With  returning  health  he  felt  a  strong  incli- 
nation to  return  to  his  former  habits,  and  to 


REPENTANCE.  97 

associate  with  his  old  companions.  There  were 
no  religious  people  near  him.  Even  during  his 
sickness  no  one  ever  offered  a  prayer  at  his 
bedside.  No  one  was  near  him  that  feared 
God  to  encourage  him,  and  scarcely  one  who 
was  not  in  the  habit  of  becoming  intoxicated. 
The  Sabbath  was  disregarded,  and  swearing 
was  common  even  among  women  and  children. 
There  was  no  preaching  nearer  than  five  miles, 
arid  that  only  twice  in  a  month.  He  had  no 
way  to  go  but  to  walk,  and  a  large  creek  was  to 
be  crossed  three  times.  He  had  no  book  but 
an  old  Bible,  printed  in  1718,  nearly  worn  out. 

These  were  his  only  means  of  religious  in- 
struction, while  he  was  surrounded  with  bar- 
riers in  every  direction.  He  strove  for  resolu- 
tion to  keep  the  vows  his  soul  had  made  in 
anguish,  till  a  friend  he  met  one  day  handed 
him  an  old  book,  called,  "The  Afflicted  Man's 
Companion."  He  read  it  with  deep  interest ;  it 
called  to  his  mind  all  the  promises  he  had  made 
in  his  sickness.  When  he  read  the  dying  say- 
ings of  Christians  recorded  in  that  book,  he 
resolved,  by  God's  help,  to  live  and  die  the 
death  of  the  righteous. 

The  struggle  now  began  in  earnest.     A  car- 

Pil.  Boy.  *J 


98  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

nal  heart,  backed  up  by  Satanic  influence,  re- 
sisted God's  Spirit,  and  held  up  Christ  as  too 
merciful  to  punish  a  sinner  eternally.  But  rea- 
son and  revelation  both  said,  that  punishment 
such  as  he  suffered  in  his  sickness,  would  on  the 
same  principle  be  inconsistent  with  the  attri- 
butes of  a  merciful  God.  If  eternal  punishment 
was  unjust,  temporal  punishment  must  be  so 
too. 

The  agony  of  his  soul  was  so  great  that  he  of- 
ten went  to  the  woods  and  rolled  on  the  ground 
for  hours  ;  he  had  no  religious  friend  to  whom 
he  could  reveal  the  feelings  of  his  heart.  His 
wife  and  all  around  him  were  destitute,  as  far 
as  he  knew,  of  any  feeling  on  the  subject  of 
religion ;  and  if  they  had  known  his  feelings,  it 
would  have  exposed  him  to  derision.  He  strove 
to  surrender  himself  to  Christ,  but  in  vain.  A 
voice  seemed  to  follow  him  continually,  "He 
that  is  ashamed  of  me  and  my  words,  of  him 
will  I  be  ashamed  before  my  Father  and  his 
holy  angels."  He  felt  that  a  public  acknow- 
ledgment of  Christ  and  his  cause  was  the  only 
way  of  relief.  But  he  shrunk  from  the  duty ; 
he  wanted  to  be  a  secret  Christian,  to  go  to  the 
Saviour,  like  Nicodemus,  in  the  night  season. 


.  FAMILY  WORSHIP.  99 

His  distress  continued  for  some  months  with- 
out any  abatement.  He  finally  determined  to 
ask  a  blessing  at  his  table  ;  this  seemed  to  be  a 
hard  task  before  an  irreligious  wife.  The  trial 
was  made,  and  he  succeeded.  The  news  soon 
spread,  and  he  was  called  on  at  his  neighbors' 
tables  when  he  was  present,  but  he  refused  ;  and 
that  brought  to  his  mind  the  fearful  text  just 
quoted.  For  some  time  he  would  not  eat  away 
from  home  even  if  he  was  suffering  with  hun- 
ger, if  he  expected  to  be  called  on  to  ask  a 
blessing  at  the  table. 

But  he  felt  he  must  go  a  step  farther  at  home. 
He  resolved  and  reresolved  to  commence  fam- 
ily prayer.  But  when  the  hour  came  round, 
his  courage  would  fail.  For  six  months  he  set 
every  Sunday  night  to  begin.  He  spent  hours 
in  the  woods  praying  to  God  for  strength,  but 
when  night  came,  and  the  moment  drew  near, 
he  would  tremble  like  an  aspen-leaf,  and  retire 
without  prayer.  Then  his  conscience  would 
lash  him  for  being  ashamed  of  Christ.  This 
state  of  mind  continued  till  life  became  a  bur- 
den, and  he  was  tempted  to  terminate  his  own 
existence  or  to  banish  all  thought  of  his  soul 
from  his  mind,  lead  a  moral  life,  and  if  he 


100  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

did  go  to  hell,  it  would  be  but  little  worse  than 
his  present  misery. 

But  the  Spirit  of  God  still  strove,  and  would 
not  give  him  up.  He  finally  resolved  to  begin 
family  worship,  or  die  in  the  attempt.  He  set 
the  next  Sunday  night,  as  he  felt  more  on  Sun- 
day than  any  other  day,  and  there  was  less 
danger  of  any  one  coming  in  at  night  than  in 
the  morning.  Most  of  the  day  was  spent  in 
prayer  ;  the  dreaded  hour  arrived.  Satan,  and 
an  unrenewed  heart  resisting  the  Spirit  of  God 
and  duty;  and  shame,  the  offspring  of  sin,  made 
him  tremble.  His  wife,  who  was  the  only  one 
present,  was  entirely  ignorant  of  the  struggle 
in  his  heart.  When  in  conversation  his  voice 
faltered,  she  asked  him  the  cause,  but  he  could 
not  reply.  The  struggle  was  awful :  for  a  mo- 
ment he  was  on  the  point  of  resolving  never  to 
try  to  pray  in  his  family.  Then  a  voice  seemed 
to  say,  Go  forward  now,  or  your  doom  is  sealed. 
He  felt  it  was  the  turning-point  in  his  eternal 
destiny,  that  heaven  or  hell  hung  on  that  mo- 
ment ;  two  unseen  powers  seemed  each  to  have 
the  death-grip ;  the  pangs  of  his  soul  were  be- 
yond the  power  of  language  to  describe. 

The  moment  of  final  decision  came.     There 


"STRIVING  OF  THE,  SPIBJT,,  101 

had  been  silence  a  few  minutes ;  he  arose, 
grasped  the  Bible  with  a  trembling  hand,  and 
with  a  determination  to  read  a  chapter  and 
pray,  or  die  in  the  attempt.  He  broke  the 
silence  by  saying,  "  My  dear  wife,  God  has  said 
he  will  pour  out  his  fury  on  the  families  that 
call  not  on  his  name,  and  I  am  constrained  to 
begin  to-night.  Will  you  join  me?"  She  was 
silent ;  he  opened  the  Bible,  the  struggle  was 
over,  his  fears  all  gone,  man's  extremity  was 
God's  opportunity ;  the  precious  promise,  "  My 
strength  shall  be  made  perfect  in  weakness,  my 
grace  is  sufficient  for  you,"  was  realized ;  the 
duty  was  performed,  and  peace  of  mind  fol- 
lowed. His  wife  looked  alarmed,  but  remained 
silent ;  he  told  her  of  his  long  struggle ;  she 
seemed  deeply  impressed  for  a  long  time,  but 
did  not  give  evidence  of  a  change  of  heart  for 
many  years  after. 

But  let  us  stop,  dear  reader,  and  look  at  the 
picture  of  the  pilgrim  just  drawn.  Have  you 
not  had  similar  feelings,  to  some  extent?  they 
may  not  have  been  so  intense ;  but  have  you 
not  felt  there  were  two  powers  at  work  in  your 
heart,  the  one  calling  you  to  your  duty  to  God, 
the  other  holding  up  prayer  before  you  as  a 


102  THE  PILGEIM  BOY. 

burden  ;  the  one  striving  to  save  you,  the  other 
to  destroy  you  ? 

There  is  a  turning-point  in  your  eternal  des- 
tiny. Have  you  passed  it  ?  If  you  have  pass- 
ed through  all,  or  most  of  what  is  described  in 
his  case,  and  have  become  careless  and  indiffer- 
ent about  your  soul,  you  have  great  reason  to 
fear  your  doom  is  sealed  for  eternal  death. 
God  will  not  give  you  peace  in  Jesus  Christ 
till,  like  the  prodigal,  you  arise  and  go  to  your 
Father ;  then  he  will  say,  "  Son,  be  of  good 
cheer ;  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee." 


G-RIEV1NG-  G-OD'S  SPIRIT,  103 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

ON  GRIEVING-  G-OD'S  SPIRIT. 

THE  facts  above  given  suggest  many  thoughts 
on  the  awfully  important  subject  of  grieving 
the  Spirit  of  God. 

The  Spirit  of  God  is  the  last  remedial  agent 
between  God  and  dying  men.  When  he  takes 
his  final  departure,  the  atonement  and  interces- 
sion of  the  Son  of  God  can  be  of  no  avail ;  no 
power  in  heaven  or  on  the  earth  can  save  the 
sinner ;  his  doom  is  irrevocably  sealed.  Does 
it  not  become  us,  with  all  the  candor  of  dying 
men,  to  seek  to  understand  his  operations  ? 

God  has  said,  "  My  Spirit  shall  not  always 
strive  with  man ;"  and  again,  "  Grieve  not  the 
Spirit  of  God,  whereby  you  are  sealed  unto  the 
day  of  redemption ;"  and  again,  "  Quench  not 
the  Spirit.'7  And  we  are  plainly  told  there  is 
"a  sin  unto  death,"  which  is  the  result  of 
quenching  the  Spirit.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  the 
third  person  of  the  adorable  Trinity,  sent  by 
the  Father  and  the  Son  to  apply  the  atonement 


104  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

of  Christ  to  the  heart  of  the  sinner.  In  his 
usual  operations,  he  awakes  in  the  sinner's 
mind  serious  thoughts  of  eternity,  by  pressing 
on  his  heart  some  of  the  warning  truths  of  the 
Bible.  Truths  that  he  may  have  heard  often 
before  without  being  affected,  will  now  make 
him  tremble.  Business  or  pleasure  may  drive 
them  away  for  a  time,  but  they  will  return 
again  and  again  unbidden. 

In  the  case  of  those  that  are  saved,  the  Spir- 
it continues  to  strive.  They  are  made  to  feel 
sin  to  be  such  a  grievous  burden,  that  they  must 
forsake  it,  and  cast  themselves  on  Christ  with 
their  whole  heart.  The  Holy  Ghost,  by  his 
almighty  power,  renews  the  heart,  and  enables 
the  sinner  to  give  up  himself  to  God.  When 
this  is  done,  the  sinner  is  born  again,  and  be- 
comes "a  new  creature  in  Christ  Jesus;7'  his 
distress  of  mind  is  removed  ;  he  feels  joy  and 
peace.  As  an  evidence  pf  the  change,  the  very 
things  he  loved  most  before,  he  now  hates,  and 
the  things  he  once  hated,  he  now  loves.  He 
desires  Christians  for  his  companions  ;  he  loves 
the  ministers  of  Christ ;  he  loves  the  house  of 
God  ;  he  loves  to  read  the  Bible  and  pray  ;  he 
shuns  the  company  of  the  wicked  in  whose  so- 


GRIEVING-  GOD'S  SPIRIT.  105 

ciety  he  once  delighted,  and  his  constant  aim  is 
to  become  more  holy,  and  more  like  Christ. 

But  let  us  examine  more  closely  some  of  the 
various  stages  of  feeling  through  which  the  sin- 
ner may  pass  before  he  is  converted,  or  given 
over  to  hardness  of  heart  and  blindness  of 
mind ;  and  we  ask  you  to  follow  us  in  this  in- 
vestigation, and  see  how  far  your  own  feelings 
may  be  described,  and  what  divine  influences 
you  have  rejected,  and  how  near  the  line  of 
everlasting  separation  between  God  and  your 
soul  you  may  have  come. 

The  Spirit  of  God  usually  begins  to  move  on 
the  hearts  of  those  who  have  had  any  thing 
like  correct  religious  training  when  they  are 
quite  young.  Such  examples  as  the  pilgrim 
boy  are  by  no  means  rare.  These  convictions 
of  the  Spirit  are  felt  by  many  before  they  are 
ten  years  of  age ;  from  that  to  fifteen  they  are 
often  more  constant  and  abiding  ;  and  we  have 
reason  to  hope  that  many  yield  to  his  invita- 
tions, and  are  truly  converted  to  God  in  these 
early  periods  of  life.  Between  the  ages  of  fif- 
teen and  twenty,  multitudes  have  felt  his  sav- 
ing influence,  and  most  of  those  who  ever  give 
evidence  of  being  born  again,  experience  the 


106  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

change  before  the  age  of  twenty ;  and  we  may 
safely  say  that,  to  those  reaching  that  age  still 
unmoved  and  far  from  God,  the  probabilities 
of  ever  gaining  a  home  in  heaven  are  greatly 
diminished. 

And  now,  my  dear  young  friend,  let  me  ask 
you  the  question,  Has  not  a  feeling  of  awful 
solemnity  sometimes  passed  over  your  soul, 
which  made  you  think  of  death,  judgment,  and 
eternity?  Have  not  your  sins  risen  up  before 
you  and  destroyed  for  a  time  all  your  happi- 
ness, and  made  you  desire  to  be  a  Christian, 
and  even  promise  that  you  would  turn  to  God 
and  lead  the  life  of  his  servants  ?  You  could 
not  tell  perhaps  whence  this  feeling  came,  or 
whither  it  went?  On.  hearing  a  sermon,  or 
kind  warning  from  some  friend,  on  the  reading 
of  a  religious  book,  or  the  death  of  some  one 
you  loved,  the  same  kind  of  feeling  has  return- 
ed, and  your  convictions  of  sin  became  deeper, 
and  new  resolutions  were  formed.  Perhaps  you 
then,  set  some  future  time,  when  you  resolved 
that  you  would  make  a  business  of  seeking  your 
soul's  salvation  ;  and  by  this  temptation  of  the 
adversary  you  got  a  present  relief,  and  in  a  few 
days  all  was  forgotten  again. 


GRIEVING-  GOD'S  SPIRIT.;  107 

But  the  Spirit  may  have  continued  to  strive 
with  you.  Have  you  spent  anxious  days  and 
nights,  during  revivals  of  religion,  when  some 
special  truth  was  fastened  on  your  mind,  which 
gave  you  no  peace ;  when  you  saw  others  em- 
bracing the  Saviour  and  rejoicing  in  hope,  which 
only  increased  your  distress,  as  a  voice  seemed 
to  say,  "Son,  give  nie  thy  heart?'7  Perhaps 
you  now  began  to  count  the  cost,  and  say,  If  I 
become  a  Christian,  it  will  end  all  my  youthful 
pleasures ;  and  to  get  rid  of  these  feelings  you 
may  have  stayed  away  from  the  house  of  God, 
and  gone  to  dancing  parties,  or  associated  with 
thoughtless  sinners,  and  in  this  way  have  ban- 
ished all  your  convictions  of  sin.  This  is  what 
is  called  in  Scripture,  "grieving  the  Spirit  of 
God.77  But  still  your  day  of  grace  may  not  be 
past. 

After  a  while,  perhaps,  a  revival  season  re- 
turns again  in  the  church.  The  arrows  of  con- 
viction fly  thick  around  you  ;  many  are  coming 
to  Christ ;  your  friends  are  wrestling  in  prayer 
to  God  for  you ;  your  sins  rise  in  awful  majes- 
ty before  you ;  you  feel  as  if  hell  was  yawning 
beneath  you ;  the  Spirit  of  God  says,  "  Now  is 
the  accepted  time  ;77  heaven  seems  open  before 


108  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

you  ;  the  Saviour  is  ready  to  embrace  you.  But 
another  voice  says,  There  is  time  enough  yet; 
religion  will  destroy  all  your  pleasures ;  live 
on  for  a  few  years  as  you  are.  You  stop  and 
weigh  the  consequences,  with  the  full  convic- 
tion on  your  mind  that  there  now  rests  upon 
you  the  responsibility  of  choosing  either  life  or 
death.  You  deliberately  say  to  the  Spirit  of 
God,  "  Go  thy  way,"  and  turn  to  your  sinful 
pleasures  again  with  more  than  ordinary  greed- 
iness. In  a  few  days  all  your  feelings  are 
gone,  and  like  the  stubborn  oak,  whose  roots 
strike  deeper  with  every  blast  that  shakes  it, 
till  it  becomes  immovable,  so  you  may  have  be- 
come more  and  more  immovable  by  every  mo- 
tion of  the  Spirit  on  your  heart,  till  you  may 
now  be  given  up  of  God. 

"There  is  a  sin  unto  death."  There  is  a 
time,  we  know  not  when ;  there  is  a  point,  we 
know  not  where,  which,  if  you  pass  unconvert- 
ed, "  there  remains  no  more  sacrifice  for  sin." 
Your  doom  is  sealed,  the  door  is  shut,  and  all 
the  tears  and  prayers  of  the  whole  church  of 
God  on  earth  could  not  save  you,  for  the  Holy 
Ghost  has  taken  his  final  departure. 

Those  who  have  thus  passed  their  day  of 


GRIEVING-  G-OD'S  SPIRIT.  109 

grace,  have  usually  been  brought  by  the  striv- 
ing of  the  Spirit  to  feel  that  they  were  rebels 
against  God ;  that  Jesus  Christ  was  able  and 
willing  to  save  them  ;  that  the  Spirit  was  ready 
to  renew  their  hearts ;  but  at  that  point  they 
wilfully  rejected  him,  and  presumptuously  turn- 
ed to  their  sins,  and  found  relief  in  indulging 
them  ;  and  they  have  remained  indifferent,  hat- 
ing God  and  good  men  ever  since.  Such,  we 
believe,  have  passed  their  day  of  grace.  And 
if  you  can  now  read  this  fearful  description 
with  indifference,  it  is  still  additional  evidence 
of  the  awful  fact  that  such  is  the  case  with  you ; 
but  if  you  feel  now  a  tender  concern  for  your 
soul,  it  is  evidence  that  your  day  of  grace  is 
not  past. 

I  once  visited  a  woman  about  thirty  years  of 
age,  with  whom  I  conversed  in  the  presence  of 
her  mother.  I  inquired  if  she  was  a  member 
of  any  church.  She  answered,  "  No."  I  asked 
if  she  had  not  at  some  time  felt  concern  for  her 
salvation.  "  Yes,"  she  said,  "  I  think  but  few 
have  been  more  anxious  on  the  subject  than  I 
was  once."  I  asked  at  what  period  of  her  life 
this  occurred,  when  she  gave  me  the  following 
account  of  God's  dealings  with  her :  "  When  I 


110  THE  PILGHIIM  BOY. 

was  about  fifteen  years  old,  I  felt  that  I  was  a 
great  sinner  in  the  sight  of  God.  Often  my 
distress  was  so  great  that  I  could  not  sleep ; 
and  for  three  years  I  seldom  had  peace  for  a 
week  at  a  time.  I  knew  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
was  striving  with  me,  and  that  I  ought  to  yield 
my  heart  to  his  influence;  but  I  thought  it 
would  cut  off  my  pleasures  in  the  midst  of 
youth.  I  tried  to  banish  the  thoughts  of  eter- 
nity ;  but  they  would  still  return  and  interrupt 
my  pleasure.  I  tried  reading  novels  and  ro- 
mances ;  they  gave  me  relief  for  a  while,  but 
my  distress  returned.  At  last  I  went  to  the 
ballroom — and  I  have  never  since  had  such 
feelings  as  before."  "  And  have  you  no  fears/7 
said  I,  "  that  you  have  grieved  away  the  Spirit 
of  God  for  ever  ?"  "  Yes,"  she  replied,  "  I  have 
no  doubt  of  that,  and  that  I  shall  be  lost."  I 
proceeded  to  describe  the  state  and  misery  of 
the  lost,  and  appealed  to  her,  by  the  prayers  of 
her  mother  and  the  tears  which  were  then  fall- 
ing from  her  sunken  eyes,  by  the  danger  of  an 
eternal  separation  from  pious  friends,  by  the 
glories  of  heaven  and  the  agonies  of  the  Son  of 
God,  now  to  make  her  peace  with  him  and  be 
saved.  "All  this,"  she  calmly  replied,  "has 


GRIEVING-  GOB'S  SPIRIT.  Ill 

been  tried  upon  me  before.  Nothing  that  you 
or  any  other  man  can  say  on  that  subject,  can 
move  me  now.  My  doom  is  fixed/7 

Another  case  was  that  of  Mr.  B ,  who 

was  over  seventy  years  old,  and  living  an  un- 
godly life.  I  approached  him  with  kindness, 
and  at  length  he  conversed  freely.  I  spoke  of 
the  goodness  of  God  to  him  in  his  advanced 
years,  and  asked  if  he  hoped  he  had  an  interest 
in  Christ.  He  replied,  "  No."  I  asked  if  he 
received  the  Bible  as  the  word  of  God.  He 
answered,  "  Yes."  I  said,  "The  Bible  teaches 
that  a  man  must  be  born  again  before  he  can 
enter  the  kingdom  of  God  ;  do  you  think  you 
have  experienced  that  change?"  "No/7  said 
he,  "  I  never  have."  I  saw  that  he  was  intelli- 
gent, and  inquired  if  no  "  still  small  voice"  had 
ever  whispered  to  him,  "Son,  give  me  thy 
heart?7  "Yes,"  said  he,  "often.  I  used  to 
feel,  but  for  many  years  I  have  not  felt  as  I  did 
when  I  was  young.  I  then  had  some  very  seri- 
ous times.7'  I  asked  at  what  period  he  had  felt 
most  deeply  the  importance  of  religion.  Ho 
replied,  "  When  I  was  seventeen  I  began  to 
feel  deeply  at  times,  and  this  continued  for  two 
or  three  years ;  but  I  determined  to  put  it  off 


112  THE  PILORIM  BOY. 

till  I  should  be  settled  in  life.  After  I  was 
married,  I  reflected  that  the  time  had  come 
when  I  had  promised  to  attend  to  religion;  but 
I  had  bought  this  farm,  and  I  thought  it  would 
not  suit  me  to  become  religious  till  it  was  paid 
for,  as  some  time  would  have  to  be  devoted  to 
attend  church,  and  also  some  expense.  I  then, 
resolved  to  put  it  off  ten  years  ;  but  when  the 
ten  years  came  round,  I  thought  no  more  about 
it.  I  often  try  to  think,  but  I  cannot  keep  my 
mind  on  the  subject  one  moment. :J  I  urged 
him  by  all  the  terrors  of  dying  an  enemy  of 
God,  to  set  about  the  work  of  repentance.  "  It 
is  too  late,"  said  he,  "  I  believe  my  doom  is 
sealed ;  and  it  is  just  that  it  should  be  so,  for 
the  Spirit  strove  long  with  me,  but  I  refused." 
I  then  turned  to  his  children,  young  men  and 
young  women,  who  were  around  him,  and  en- 
treated them  not  to  put  off  the  subject  of  relig- 
ion, or  grieve  the  Spirit  of  God  in  their  youth- 
ful days.  The  old  man  added,  "  Mind  that.  If 
I  had  attended  to  it  then,  it  would  have  been 
well  with  me  to-day ;  but  now  it  is  too  late." 

On  conversing  with  a  man  in  middle  life,  he 
informed  me  that  his  father  was  a  devoted 
Christian,  that  he  was  faithfully  instructed, 


G-RIEVING-  G-OD'S  SPIRIT.  113 

and  liis  mind  was  early  impressed  with  the  im- 
portance of  religion.  In  his  youth,  there  was 
a  period  of  six  months  in  which  he  was  in  dis- 
tress, day  and  night ;  and  a  voice  within  seem- 
ed to  be  continually  saying,  "  Forsake  your  sins 
and  come  unto  me,  and  I  will  give  you  peace." 
"  But,"  he  added,  "I  did  not  wish  to  be  a  Chris- 
tian then ;  I  thought  it  would  ruin  my  pleas- 
ures. I  visited  a  part  of  the  country  where 
dancing  and  balls  were  frequent ;  in  a  little 
time  my  serious  thoughts  were  gone,  and  I  have 
never  had  any  since."  I  asked  if  he  did  not 
fear  that  God  had  given  him  up.  "  Yes,"  said 
he,  "  I  am  afraid  he  has.  I  go  to  church  and 
read  the  Bible,  and  try  to  feel,  but  I  cannot." 
I  strove  to  arouse  his  fears  ;  but  it  was  in  vain. 
I  afterwards  learned  that  he  was  pursuing  his 
worldly  business  on  the  Sabbath. 

It  is  not  for  me  to  pronounce  that  God  had 
said  of  all  these  persons,  they  are  "joined  to 
their  idols,  let  them  alone,"  "  woe  to  them 
when  I  depart  from  them ;"  but  the  state  of  all 
such  is  unspeakably  alarming.  If  such  is  your 
case ;  if  you  have  wilfully  dashed  the  cup  of 
salvation  from  your  lips,  when  God  by  his  Spir- 
it was  wooing  you  to  himself ;  if  you  have  per- 

Pil.  Boy.  8 


114  THE  PILG-EIM  BOY. 

sisted  in  saying,  "  Go  thy  way  for  this  time,  let 
me  alone  that  I  may  have  the  pleasures  of  this 
life/7  and  have  quenched  the  Spirit  by  resort- 
ing to  amusements,  the  novel,  the  ballroom,  or 
the  theatre,  God  may  have  given  you  what  you 
desired — but  what  have  you  now  of  all  these 
pleasures?  Can  you  look  back  upon  them 
with  an  approving  conscience  ?  Will  they 
bring  you  consolation  in  a  dying  hour?  No. 
You  have  even  now  in  your  own  soul,  if  you 
would  make  the  confession,  the  gnawirigs  of  the 
worm  that  never  dies,  the  burning  of  the  lire 
that  is  never  quenched.  You  will  have  no  ex- 
cuse when  you  stand  before  the  throne  of  the 
eternal  Judge.  He  will  say,  "  I  called,  but  you 
refused  ;  I  stretched  out  my  hand  to  you,  but 
you  did  not  regard  it." 

But  to  the  dying  sinner  with  whom  the  Spir- 
it of  God  is  now  striving,  let  me  say,  It  is  the 
most  momentous  period  of  your  existence.  It 
is  perhaps  the  turning  point  between  heaven 
and  hell— the  songs  of  angels,  or  the  wailings 
of  the  finally  lost.  0  seize  the  present  mo- 
ment, while  the  voice  of  the  Spirit  is  whisper- 
ing in  your  ear,  "  Now  is  the  accepted  time." 
Beware  of  stifling  that  voice.  Multitudes  have 


GRIEVING  aOD'S  SPIRIT.  115 

told  me  the  dreadful  tale,  "  I  went  to  scenes  of 
amusement,  or  turned  to  the  exciting  romance, 
and  I  have  felt  no  anxiety  since." 

0  awakened  sinner,  while  the  Spirit  strives 
it  is  the  seed-time  of  eternal  life,  the  embryo  of 
a  happy  immortality.  Sit  not  down  to  count 
the  loss  of  sinful  pleasures ;  receive  the  Sav- 
iour into  your  heart,  and  you  will  have  pleas- 
ures lasting  as  eternity ;  pleasures  that  leave 
no  sting  behind  ;  pleasures  that  will  sustain 
the  soul  when  on  your  dying  pillow,  when  the 
last  trumpet  shall  sound,  and  the  congregated 
world  stand  before  God. 

The  facts  which  have  been  stated  show  how 
momentous  is  the  period  of  youth  in  the  life  of 
man.  It  is  the  period  when  habits  of  good  or 
evil  become  so  fixed,  that  generally  the  after- 
life is  shadowed  forth  by  it.  The  tree  has  be- 
gun to  bear  evil  fruit,  and  the  root  itself  must 
be  changed  before  the  fruit  will  be  good.  How 
important  at  this  period,  when  stepping  from 
boyhood  into  the  great  arena  of  active  life,  so 
to  conduct  yourselves  that  you  may  obtain  the 
favor  of  God.  Kemember  that,  each  day  of 
your  life,  what  you  do  and  what  you  are  is  writ- 


116  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

ten  on  the  recording  angel's  book  in  characters 
changeless  as  eternity. 

Few  comparatively  have  ever  become  emi- 
nently pious  and  useful,  except  such  as  have 
yielded  to  the  Spirit  of  God  in  youth.  No 
doubt  many  become  Christians  after  that  peri- 
od ;  but  in  most  cases  their  plans  for  life  are 
laid,  and  they  continue  to  pursue  them,  in  many 
cases  unavoidably.  Do  you  desire  to  be  useful  ? 
Do  you  wish  to  honor  God  in  advancing  his 
cause?  Then  consecrate  all  your  youthful 
powers  to  him.  "  Son,  give  me  thy  heart.'7 

But  I  can  almost  hear  the  youthful  reader 
say,  This  is  all  true ;  but  if  I  become  a  Chris- 
tion  now,  it  will  destroy  my  pleasures,  and  I  am 
not  ready  for  that  yet.  I  will  wait  a  few  years 
longer,  and  then  attend  to  my  eternal  interests. 
Thousands  now  in  hell  have  reasoned  in  the 
same  way.  No  doubt  they  meant  to  attend  to 
the  subject,  just  as  you  now  do  ;  but  every  day 
they  delayed  the  work  of  repentance,  the  wall 
of  separation  between  God  and  them  rose  high- 
er and  higher.  And  so  it  will  be  with  you,  if 
you  continue  to  grieve  the  Spirit  of  God  till 
old  age.  By  such  a  course  your  heart  is  con- 
tinually growing  harder.  The  same  truths  that 


GRIEVING  GOD'S  SPIRIT.  117 

made  you  tremble  five  years  ago,  are  perhaps 
scarcely  felt  now.  Thus  the  hardening  process 
goes  on,  till  the  day  of  grace  is  past. 

I  had  once  a  Sabbath-scholar,  who  was  punc- 
tual in  his  attendance  from  the  age  of  ten  till 
he  was  twenty  years  old.  The  last  three  years 
of  that  time  he  was  under  deep  conviction  for 
sin,  and  he  would  express  his  feelings  to  me 
with  great  candor.  He  often  told  me  he  felt 
two  great  powers  at  work  in  his  heart,  espe- 
cially at  communion  seasons.  One  said,  Confess 
Christ  now  ;  the  other,  Wait  a  few  years.  At 
last  the  agony  of  his  soul  was  so  great,  that  in 
order  to  get  rid  of  those  feelings,  he  quit  the 
Sabbath-school  and  church.  I  called  to  see 
him  and  warn  him  of  his  danger.  He  seemed 
perfectly  indifferent.  When  I  referred  to  past 
interviews,  and  the  many  tears  he  used  to  shed 
when  he  saw  others  going  to  the  Lord's  table, 
he  replied,  "  I  can  now  look  at  that  scene  with- 
out any  emotion ;  and  I  don't  think  it  would 
move  me  to  see  the  Son  of  God  die  again." 
My  heart  sickened  at  the  answer.  He  now 
lives  as  if  there  was  no  God. 

There  is  great  reason  to  fear  that  some  who 
may  read  this  little  book  have  passed  through 


118  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

all  that  has  been  described,  and  are  yet  in  their 
sins.  If  so,  I  entreat  you,  by  the  value  of  your 
soul,  by  the  agony  of  the  Saviour  on  the  cross, 
and  by  his  dying  groans,  to  awake  ;  beg  of  him 
the  return  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  cast  yourself 
on  his  mercy  as  a  poor  helpless  sinner,  crying, 
"  Lord,  save,  or  I  perish."  Never  give  up  till 
you  have  "  tasted  the  good  word  of  God  and 
the  powers  of  the  world  to  come."  Till  then, 
and  not  till  then  are  you  prepared  to  spread 
your  sails  and  launch  forth  on  the  voyage  of 
life.  A  young  man  without  the  grace  of  God 
in  his  heart,  is  like  a  frail  bark  in  the  midst  of 
the  ocean  without  pilot  or  rudder.  A  smooth 
sea  or  gentle  breeze  may  waft  it  safely  for  a 
while ;  but  the  probability  is  that  it  will  be 
driven  by  storms  on  the  rocks,  or  stranded  on 
the  sandy  shore,  and  utterly  lost.  I  entreat 
you,  dear  youth,  to  prepare  for  this  voyage  of 
life.  You  have  but  one  to  make.  If  not  pilot- 
ed by  the  Spirit  of  God,  your  frail  bark  will 
founder  and  perish ;  you  will  never  reach  the 
desired  haven. 

If  you  oxGjust  entering  upon  manhood  and  the 
cares  and  responsibilities  of  life,  whatever  is  now 
the  standard  of  your  piety,  such  it  will  be  like- 


GRIEVING  GOD'S  SPIRIT.  119 

ly  to  be  while  you  live.  Whatever  course  you 
now  adopt  in  your  .religious  duties,  that  course 
you  will  probably  continue  to  pursue.  If  you 
have  formed  the  habit  of  secret  prayer,  with  the 
regularity  of  the  rising  and  setting  sun,  there 
is  reason  to  hope  you  will  continue  it  through 
life.  If  you  have  become  the  head  of  a  family, 
and  like  the  pious  patriarch,  erected  an  altar  to 
God,  on  which  morning  and  evening  incense  is 
offered,  you  will  be  likely  to  continue  it;  and 
if  it  has  been  and  is  now  neglected,  there  is 
great  reason  to  fear  that  it  will  never  be 
erected. 

I  know  many  flatter  themselves,  that  as  they 
grow  in  grace  and  knowledge,  they  will  enter 
on  this  and  other  duties ;  but  the  only  way  to 
grow  in  grace  is  by  the  performance  of  duty 
with  reliance  on  God.  You  might  as  well  ex- 
pect to  increase  your  bodily  strength  without 
taking  food,  as  to  increase  spiritual  strength 
without  secret  and  family  prayer.  As  the 
blacksmith's  arm  gains  strength  by  swinging 
the  hammer,  so  will  you  gain  strength  in  the 
performance  of  present  duty.  I  entreat  all  the 
professed  followers  of  Christ  who  become  heads 
of  families,  to  erect  the  altar  of  prayer  the  first 


120  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

night  they  lodge  in  their  own  house,  and  in- 
scribe on  it,  Punctuality.  Let  the  morning  and 
evening  sacrifice  be  offered  to  him  who-  made 
and  preserves  you.  The  Saviour  requires  it, 
the  honor  of  the  church  in  the  eyes  of  the  world 
requires  it  of  you,  and  your  own  comfort  arid 
happiness  will  be  enhanced  by  it. 

The  family  altar  is  a  quadrant,  by  which 
the  piety  of  the  church  may  be  measured.  The 
church  is  composed  of  families.  In  this  day  of 
hurry  and  bustle,  when  all  are  rushing  with 
locomotive  speed  for  the  accomplishment  of 
some  worldly  scheme,  as  if  life  depended  on  it, 
we  fear  this  duty  is  sadly  neglected;  yea,  we 
know  it  is.  There  are  thousands  of  families  in 
our  land  where  the  head  of  the  family  is  a  pro- 
fessor of  religion,  that  so  far  as  the  family  altar 
is  concerned,  lie  down  at  night  and  rise  in  the 
morning  like  the  brutes  that  perish ;  and  it  is 
not  only  the  private  members  of  the  church 
that  neglect  this  duty,  but  in  some  cases  church 
officers.  In  too  many  cases,  almost  the  only 
distinction  between  the  church  and  the  world 
is  the  communion  table — we  fear  there  will  be 
none  in  eternity. 

Are  you  the  head  of  a  family,  and  a  profess- 


GRIEVING-  G-OJD'S  SPIRIT.  121 

ed  follower  of  Christ?  Remember  the  patri- 
archs built  an  altar  to  God  wherever  they  went. 
Go  and  do  likewise ;  you  will  never  find  a  time 
as  convenient ;  if  you  are  diffident,  that  diffi- 
culty, as  your  family  grows  up  around  you,  will 
probably  increase.  As  it  was  in  giving  your 
heart  to  Christ,  the  longer  you  delay,  the  great- 
er the  obstacles.  Resolve  to  do  it  or  die  in  the 
attempt,  and  you  will  find  man's  extremity  is 
God's  opportunity.  The  family  altar  will  be- 
come a  place  of  sweet  communion  with  God, 
where  he  will  meet  you  morning  and  evening, 
and  give  you  grace  and  strength  for  the  duties 
and  trials  of  each  day.  Family  worship,  in 
connection  with  secret  prayer,  will  prepare  you 
for  keeping  up  a  telegraphic  communication 
between  God  and  your  soul.  Then  your  light 
will  shine,  not  only  on  your  own  family,  but  on 
others  around  you.  And  as  your  children  grow 
up,  your  example,  by  the  divine  blessing,  will 
make  such  an  impression  on  their  minds,  that 
as  they  enter  the  church  they  will  establish  al- 
tars of  prayer,  and  thus  your  influence  will 
descend  from  generation  to  generation. 


122  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

JOINS  THE   CHURCH-H1S   FIRST  COMMUNION. 

A  FEW  months  after  commencing  family  wor- 
ship, as  above  described,  he  concluded  he  would 
go  before  the  session  of  the  church,  and  tell 
them  his  spiritual  condition.  The  day  for  the 
meeting  of  the  session  came ;  he  was  requested 
to  give  a  full  statement  of  his  past  and  present 
feelings,  which  he  did.  He  was  then  requested 
to  retire,  and  was  soon  informed  that  they  had 
unanimously  agreed  to  receive  him  to  the  full 
privileges  of  the  church.  He  trembled  at  the 
news ;  he  did  not  feel  fit  to  go  to  the  Lord's 
table.  He  was  urged  to  prayerful  self-exami- 
nation, preparatory  to  coming  to  the  commun- 
ion table  on  the  next  Sabbath.  The  interven- 
ing time  was  one  of  deep  anxiety  and  almost 
unceasing  prayer,  to  know,  if  possible,  how 
matters  stood  between  God  and  his  own  soul. 

From  what  he  had  been  accustomed  to  hear 
ministers  say  to  communicants,  he  expected  to 
have  some  unmistakable  evidence  of  God's  pres- 
ence while  at  the  Lord's  table.  He  had  often 


JOINS  THE  CHURCH.  123 

heard  them  say  it  was  a  testing-place,  where 
Christ  met  his  people  to  bless  them,  and  where 
they  might  ask  large  things  of  him,  expecting 
they  would  be  granted. 

He  partook  of  the  Lord's  supper  the  first 
time  under  this  impression,  looking  for  some 
sensible  manifestation  of  God's  presence ;  but 
to  his  utter  astonishment,  nothing  of  the  kind 
was  experienced.  He  came  away  deeply  dis- 
tressed and  disappointed,  and  returned  home 
that  evening  under  the  impression  that  he  had 
eaten  and  drunk  damnation  to  his  own  soul, 
and  committed  the  "sin  against  the  Holy 
Ghost."  His  distress  was  now  greater,  if  pos- 
sible, than  it  had  ever  been  before;  the  night 
was  spent  in  deep  anguish  of  soul,  and  the 
morning  brought  no  relief. 

The  next  day  he  returned  to  the  church  to 
attend  the  continued  service,  as  was  usual  in 
that  part  of  the  country.  His  distress  was  so 
great  he  could  not  give  attention  to  the  ser- 
mon, which  had  no  bearing  on  his  case.  At 
the  close  some  business  was  to  be  done  in  rela- 
tion to  the  interests  of  the  church,  and  all  the 
male  members  were  requested  to  remain.  After 
the  business  was  over,  he  started  homewards, 


124  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

his  soul  burdened  with  the  deepest  distress; 
life  seemed  to  be  an  intolerable  burden  ;  he  de- 
sired to  die,  and  know  the  worst  of  his  case, 
and  was  again  tempted  to  destroy  himself.  He 
took  a  narrow  footpath  along  the  side  of  a 
high  hill  that  led  to  his  house  nearer  than  the 
public  road ;  it  was  a  way  seldom  travelled  ex- 
cept by  hunters.  He  turned  from  the  path  to  a 
dark  cave  on  the  hill-side,  where  no  eye  but  that 
of  God  could  see  him,  and  there  he  resolved  to 
remain  till  he  found  peace  in  Christ.  He  cast 
himself  on  the  earth  with  the  agonizing  cry, 
"  Lord,  save,  or  I  perish."  Almost  instantly  a 
joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory  filled  his  soul, 
heaven  seemed  to  be  let  down  to  earth  with  all 
its  enrapturing  delights,  and  he  felt  like  the 
disciples  on  the  mount  of  Transfiguration.  He 
arose  from  the  earth  as  if  he  could  almost  fly 
heavenward ;  he  felt  unwilling  to  leave  the 
place,  and  could  not  tell  how  long  he  remain- 
ed. But  the  happiness  of  that  time  was  more 
than  all  the  pleasures  of  his  whole  past  life  put 
together  ;  it  was  a  foretaste  of  the  good  word 
of  God  and  the  world  to  come.  Every  thing 
looked  beautiful ;  all  nature  was  changed  ;  the 
very  trees  of  the  forest  looked  divine;  the 


JOINS  THE  CHURCH.  125 

Toiee  of  the  birds  resembled  the  songs  of  an- 
gels chanting  heavenly  melodies.  He  reached 
home  before  he  was  aware  of*it,  and  all  there 
seemed  different  from  what  it  had  ever  been 
before.  God  seemed  to  be  in  him,  and  in 
every  thing  around  him.  This  state  of  mind 
continued  unabated  for  some  weeks.  He 
thought  and  spoke  only  of  Christ  and  his  sal- 
tation. Even  the  toils  and  labors  of  the  day 
were  performed  without  the  usual  fatigue  or 
weariness.  He  could  almost  say  that 

"  Not  a  wave  of  trouble  rolled 
Across  his  peaceful  breast." 

But  alas,  the  lurking  pride  of  his  heart  began 
to  show  itself.  He  began  to  feel  as  if  he  was 
a  favorite  of  heaven.  As  self-righteousness 
increased,  heavenly-mindedncss  decreased,  and 
doubts  arose.  He  thought  all  the  joys  he  had 
experienced  might  have  been  a  delusion  ;  that 
Satan  might  have  transformed  himself  into  an 
angel  of  light,  and  thus  deceived  him.  He  be- 
gan to  feel  deep  anxiety.  The  spirit  of  prayer 
had  departed  from  him  in  a  great  measure,  and 
heaven  seemed  to  be  sealed  against  his  cries. 
But  he  was  still  unwilling  to  give  up  religious 
duties,  and  determined  that  if  he  did  perish,  he 


126  THE  PILOEIM  BOY. 

would  continue  to  pray.  After  a  few  weeks, 
light  dawned  again  on  his  soul,  and  he  had 
hope  that  he  wa§  a  child  of  God.  In  future 
years  he  believed  that  his  heart  was  changed 
the  night  he  first  worshipped  God  in  the  pres- 
ence of  his  wife,  which  was  more  than  six 
months  previous. 

He  had  long  prayed  for  clear  evidence  that 
he  was  a  child  of  God,  that  his  happiness  might 
be  complete,  and  he  might  be  free  from  the  fear 
of  death.  God  may  have  given  him  the  desire 
of  his  heart  for  a  short  time,  in  order  to  show 
him  his  own  weakness,  and  that  his  strength 
was  not  in  himself,  but  in  God,  and  thus  teach 
hirn  a  lesson  of  humility.  I  believe  that  if  we 
were  taken  to  heaven  for  a  day,  and  permitted 
to  taste  its  enjoyments,  in  order  to  give  us 
unmistakable  evidence  of  our  acceptance  with 
God,  and  then  brought  back  to  earth,  and  left 
to  rest  on  that  evidence  alone,  unsupported  by 
daily  grace,  we  should  still  fall  into  doubt  and 
darkness  and  perplexity.  "As  thy  day  is,  so 
shall  thy  strength  be,"  is  a  wise  arrangement  of 
divine  providence.  He  gives  grace  enough  to 
prevent  despair,  and  not  enough  to  lead  to  pre- 
sumption. 


FIRST  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  EFFORTS.        127 

CHAPTER  XV. 

HIS  FIRST  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  EFFORTS. 

THE  cares  of  the  world  began  now  to  press 
hard  upon  him.  He  was  very  poor  in  this 
world's  goods,  with  nothing  but  his  own  hands 
to  depend  on  for  a  living.  A  day's  labor  would 
only  bring  twenty-five  cents,  or  a  bushel  of 
corn,  which  was  only  worth  that  sum.  Many  a 
day  he  rose  while  the  stars  were  shining,  and 
went  four  miles,  worked  all  day,  and  returned 
by  starlight  again,  with  one  bushel  of  corn. 
He  truly  earned  his  bread  by  the  sweat  of  his 
brow ;  his  lot  seemed  to  be  a  hard  one.  When 
he  was  a  little  boy,  he  often  prayed  Agur^s 
prayer,  "Give  me  neither  poverty  nor  riches; 
feed  me  with  food  convenient  for  me."  But 
even  this  he  could  see  no  way  at  this  time  to 
realize.  He  was  often  tempted  to  embark  in 
some  new  enterprise,  but  was  prevented  by  the 
dread  of  failure,  or  the  fear  that  others  might 
lose  something  through  him,  and  thus  a  stain 
be  brought  upon  his  character  and  upon  re- 
ligion. 


128  THE  PILG-RIM  BOY. 

By  constant  industry,  in  a  few  years  his 
worldly  circumstances  began  to  improve  a  lit- 
tle. The  wet  days  and  the  long  nights  he 
turned  to  some  account  in  making  shoes,  and 
thus  he  often  worked  till  midnight,  with  some 
useful  book  spread  out  before  him,  storing  his 
mind  with  knowledge.  Theological  books  were 
his  daily  companions,  as  he  believed  they  were 
better  calculated  both  to  develope  the  mind  and 
improve  the  heart  than  any  other  kind  of  reading. 

Soon  after  uniting  with  the  church,  he  felt 
that  he  must  do  more  for  Christ's  cause  in  the 
earth.  He  saw  drunkenness,  Sabbath-breaking, 
and  all  kinds  of  vice  around  him,  and  began 
to  cast  about  what  he  could  do  to  remove  it. 

About  that  time  a  very  pious  man,  not  far 
from  his  own  age,  settled  a  few  miles  distant 
from  him,  and  organized  a  Sunday-school.  As 
soon  as  he  heard  of  it,  he  went  to  see  it,  for 
being  the  first  that  was  ever  established  in  that 
region,  it  attracted  much  attention.  Many  of 
the  old-fashioned  Christians  thought  it  a  dese- 
cration of  the  Sabbath,  and  denounced  it  in 
bitter  terms,  and  few  favored  it.  He  thought 
he  would  go  and  see  for  himself,  and  judge  ac- 
cordingly. He  watched  the  day's  performance 


FIRST  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  EFFORTS.        129 

very  closely ;  and  when  he  saw  seventy  boys 
and  girls,  mostly  children  of  godless  parents, 
learning  to  read  the  Bible,  he  felt  it  was  a  good 
work.  At  the  close  of  the  school,  he  was  re- 
quested by  the  good  man  who  conducted  it  to 
lead  iii  prayer,  but  declined,  as  he  had  never 
prayed  in  the  presence  of  any  one  except  his 
wife,  and  that  with  great  embarrassment. 

When  the  school  was  dismissed,  an  acquaint- 
ance introduced  him  to  the  superintendent, 
who,  after  some  inquiry  about  the  condition  of 
his  neighborhood,  urged  him  to  open  a  Sunday- 
school  there.  This  man's  piety  was  so  far  above 
any  he  had  ever  met,  that  it  impressed  him 
deeply.  He  seemed  to  breathe  the  atmosphere 
of  heaven.  Before  they  parted,  the  pilgrim 
arranged  to  get  a  Sunday-school  library,  and 
agreed  to  meet  this  good  man  the  same  evening 
at  a  private  house  where  a  prayer-meeting  was 
appointed,  and  to  take  part  in  the  exercises, 
which  he  did  with  fear  and  trembling. 

This  formed  a  new  era  of  his  life.  While  he 
felt  humbled  with  his  own  defective  perform- 
ances, he  felt  an  approving  conscience  in  striv- 
ing to  do  his  duty.  He  had  new  views,  new 
feelings;  his  soul  was  fired  with  new  zeal, 

PiL  Boy.  9 


130  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

and  he  determined  to  enter  the  field  and  labor 
for  souls  as  one  that  must  give  account  to  God. 

The  next  week  he  sent  for  a  library  of  Sun- 
day-school books,  and  organized  a  school  in  his 
own  house,  and  invited  all  his  neighbors7  chil- 
dren to  attend  it.  His  house  was  soon  full, 
and  a  neighbor  who  had  a  larger  house  kindly 
offered  it.  The  offer  was  accepted,  and  that 
house  was  soon  full.  Soon  a  large  house  was 
built  for  that  school  and  for  other  means  of  edu- 
cation and  moral  improvement.  He  now  felt 
that  he  was  doing  some  good  to  others,  as  well 
as  making  some  progress  in  the  divine  life. 

In  addition  to  his  Sunday-school,  he  opened 
his  house  for  a  weekly  prayer-meeting,  which 
he  conducted  alone.  At  these  meetings  he 
usually  read  one  of  Burder's  village  sermons. 

In  the  course  of  a  year  after  this  school  and 
prayer-meeting  were  begun,  a  deep  religious 
interest  was  manifest  through  all  the  commu- 
nity, especially  in  the  neighborhood  where  the 
good  man  before  alluded  to  had  planted  his 
Sabbath-school,  the  schools  being  about  five 
miles  apart.  Through  the  influence  of  this  good 
man,  ministers  came  and  preached,  sometimes 
in  the  woods,  and  sometimes  in  private  houses. 


FIRST  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  EFFORTS.       131 

In  a  few  months  more  than  fifty  persons  gave 
evidence  that  they  had  been  "  born  again ;" 
some  of  all  ages,  but  mostly  those  who  had 
attended  the  Sabbath-schools  and  prayer-meet- 
ings. It  was  the  first  revival  of  religion  the 
pilgrim  had  ever  been  in.  His  Christian  char- 
acter was  much  strengthened  by  it,  and  he 
increased  in  both  power  and  knowledge  to  do 
good.  This  revival  resulted  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  church,  and  he  was  elected  and 
ordained  one  of  its  elders. 

But  now  trouble  came  on  him  from  a  very 
unexpected  quarter.  In  addition  to  the  respon- 
sibilities of  the  office,  which  he  dreaded,  his 
wife  was  violently  opposed  to  his  acceptance  of 
it,  on  account  of  loss  of  time  and  extra  expenses. 
She  had  never  shown  any  disposition  to  encour- 
age him  in  religious  duties,  but  rather  threw 
obstacles  in  his  way.  For  the  sake  of  peace  at 
home  therefore,  he  for  a  time  declined  acting 
as  an  elder.  He  was  urged  by  his  Christian 
friends  for  his  reasons,  but  delicacy  forbade 
his  giving  them.  Conscience  urged  him  to 
do  his  duty  and  act,  and  he  finally  determined 
to  forsake  all  and  follow  Christ,  and  strive 
to  win  her  over  to  him  and  his  cause. 


132  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

About  this  time  he  engaged  as  a  school- 
teacher in  his  neighborhood.  His  school  was 
large.  Man}7  of  his  pupils  were  young  men  and 
women  that  belonged  to  his  Sunday-school.  It 
required  all  his  energies  faithfully  to  conduct 
the  school,  which  numbered  about  sixty.  The 
recess  he  uniformly  employed  in  committing  to 
memory  the  passages  of  Scripture  which  con- 
tained the  Sunday-school  lesson,  together  with 
all  the  proof-texts.  This  constant  labor  of 
body  and  mind  for  a  year  induced  another 
severe  sickness,  which  again  brought  him  to 
the  brink  of  the  grave. 

During  this  sickness  many  a  touching  scene 
was  witnessed  at  his  bedside.  Some  of  his 
pupils  were  with  him  every  day,  shedding  tears 
of  sorrow,  and  receiving,  as  was  supposed,  his 
dying  counsels ;  and  none  came  or  went  un- 
warned. 

On  one  occasion,  a  married  woman  came  who 
was  one  of  his  Sabbath-scholars,  and  who  had 
learned  to  read  in  his  Sabbath-school.  As  she 
was  standing  by  his  bed,  when  it  was  supposed 
he  was  within  a  few  hours  of  eternity,  he  took 
her  by  the  hand,  and  asked  her  where  her  soul 
would  be  in  a  few  more  hours,  if  she  was  now 


FIRST  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  EFFORTS.        133 

lying  as  lie  was,  in  a  dying  condition.  She  wept 
and  trembled,  and  returned  home  a  mourning 
penitent,  and  soon  found  peace  in  believing, 
lived  some  years  a  consistent  Christian,  and 
died  rejoicing  in  hope  of  glory. 

At  another  time,  when  his  family  and  many 
of  his  neighbors  were  gathered  around  his  bed 
to  see  him  die,  God  was  pleased  peculiarly  to 
manifest  himself.  Heaven  with  all  its  glories 
seemed  to  be  unvailed  to  him,  and  he  longed  to 
depart  and  be  with  Christ.  At  his  bed  stood 
a  weeping  wife,  with  three  little  children,  poor 
and  helpless ;  and  by  her  stood  some  of  his 
pupils,  besides  many  others,  in  their  sins.  Be- 
fore him  heaven  seemed  to  be  open  with  all  its 
glories  to  receive  him  ;  his  physical  frame  nearly 
a  skeleton;  the  ordinary  antecedents  of  death 
nearly  all  past.  The  tears  of  his  wife  and  lit- 
tle children  stirred  all  the  feelings  of  his  nature. 
The  suspense  of  his  mind  was  awful,  the  strug- 
gle severe.  At  last  he  cried,  from  the  inner- 
most recesses  of  his  heart,  "  0,  Lord,  if  it  is 
for  thy  glory,  and  the  good  of  dying  souls,  let 
me  live ;  if  not,  let  me  die."  It  was  the  will 
of  God  that  he  should  live. 

Perhaps  few  have  had  the  same  kind  of  diffi- 


134  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

culties  to  encounter  as  above  related ;  but  all 
that  enter  the  service  of  their  divine  Master 
have  trials  to  meet.  The  Christian's  life  is  a 
constant  warfare  ;  the  great  archenemy  follows 
him  at  every  step,  and  often  brings  trials  when 
they  are  least  expected.  He  sometimes  pre- 
sents the  discharge  of  religious  duties  as  a  great 
burden,  and  thus  tries  to  frighten  the  Christian 
back  to  his  service ;  and  if  he  yields  once,  the 
difficulty  .is  but  increased.  There  are  heads  of 
families  in  the  church  that  live  without  family 
prayer,  for  the  want  of  courage  to  begin.  Sa- 
tan repesents  the  duty  as  a  great  burden,  and 
they  put  it  off  from  time  to  time,  hoping  to 
overcome  their  diffidence ;  whereas,  if  they 
would  make  one  determined  effort  in  reliance 
on  God,  the  difficulty  would  vanish.  He  would 
meet  them,  and  help  them  through.  When  the 
Israelites  were  hemmed  in  at  the  Red  sea,  and 
at  the  command  of  God  went  forward,  the  sea 
was  dried  up  before  them.  We  fear  there  are 
many  who,  out  of  respect  to  the  opinion  of  a 
wife,  a  husband,  a  parent,  or  a  child,  neglect 
their  duty  to  God  and  their  own  souls ;  while 
if  they  would  obey  God,  and  do  their  duty, 
they  might  win  that  friend  to  Christ.  The 


FIRST  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  EFFORTS.        135 

terms  of  discipleship  are,  that  we  must  forsake 
father  and  mother,  sister  and  brother,  wife  or 
husband,  when  they  come  between  us  and  Christ. 
The  Saviour  will  not  forego  his  claims  on  us  for 
the  accommodation  of  our  unconverted  friends. 
"How  knowest  thou,  0  wife,  but  thou  shalt 
save  thy  husband ;  or  how  knowest  thou,  0 
man,  but  thou  shalt  save  thy  wife?"  and  so  of 
all  other  relations. 

One  of  the  means  which  God  has  appointed 
for  keeping  piety  alive  in  his  children,  is  to 
work  for  Christ.  Every  Christian  should  be  a 
laborer  in  his  vineyard,  and  we  live  in  a  day 
when  every  one  can  do  something.  There  are 
many  neglected  children  untaught  at  home, 
whom  you  might  gather  into  Sunday-schools, 
and  be  the  means  of  saving.  There  are  many 
impenitent  sinners  around  you,  to  whom  you 
might  speak  a  word  or  lend  a  tract,  and  noth- 
ing would  be  more  likely  to  benefit  yourself. 
God  has  promised  that  he  that  watereth  shall 
be  watered.  All  faithful  laborers  for  Christ 
meet  a  gracious  reward  even  in  this  life,  and 
every  soul  they  save  will  be  a  star  in  their 
Redeemer's  crown. 


136  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

HIS  LABORS  IN  PRAYER-MEETING-S— CONVER- 
SION OF  HIS  WIFE. 

ON  being  raised  up  from  the  verge  of  death, 
lie  still  gave  unceasing  attention  to  his  Sab- 
bath-school, and  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  his 
scholars  increasing  rapidly  in  Bible  know- 
ledge ;  and  at  every  communion  some  of  them 
made  a  public  profession  of  their  faith  in  the 
Redeemer.  Some  fathers  and  mothers  sat  as 
scholars  with  their  children  to  study  God's 
word,  and  embraced  Christ  with  them.  In 
addition  to  his  Sabbath-school  labors,  he  as- 
sisted in  holding  prayer-meetings  two  or  three 
times  each  week.  He  often  went,  at  the  close 
of  a  hard  day's  labor,  from  four  to  six  miles, 
through  rain  and  snow,  to  unite  with  a  few 
Christian  friends  in  these  social  meetings. 
Some  of  the  sweetest  moments  of  his  life  were 
spent  in  these  social  gatherings  ;  it  often  seemed 
as  if  God  came  down  in  the  midst  of  them,  and 
almost  as  if  the  very  atmosphere  imparted  a 
divine  stimulus  to  their  souls.  During  one 


LABORS  IN  PRAYER- MEETINGS.         137 

winter  these  meetings  were  held  almost  every 
night.  It  seemed,  on  some  of  these  occasions, 
as  if  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  about  to  return. 
In  a  few  months  many  precious  souls  came  out 
on  the  Lord's  side,  and  publicly  professed  Christ. 

But  these  constant  meetings  increased  his 
domestic  troubles.  His  wife  viewed  all  as  so 
much  time  lost,  and  called  it  wild  enthusiasm. 
This  pained  his  heart,  and  often  drove  him  to 
tell  his  sorrows  to  God.  For  years,  unknown 
to  any  but  Him  who  rules  the  heavens,  a  part  of 
each  night  was  spent  in  a  lonely  grove  on  the 
bank  of  a  creek,  where  the  murmurs  of  the 
stream  mingled  with  his  agonizing  groans  for 
the  salvation  of  her  soul. 

At  last  the  time  came  when  his  sorrow  was  to 
be  turned  into  joy,  when  his  feeble  prayers  were 
to  be  answered,  and  ministering  angels  rejoice. 
This  joy  came  at  the  conclusion  of  a  communion 
Sabbath.  He  had  that  day  earnestly  renewed 
his  request  at  the  sacramental  board  to  the 
great  King  for  the  salvation  of  his  wife.  He 
had  not  discovered  any  thing  unusual  in  her  till 
he  returned  home.  When  he  went  to  put  away 
his  horse,  she  followed  him,  and  said,  with  tears, 
"  0  my  dear  husband,  I  am  a  great  sinner •"  and 


138  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

sinking  down  at  his  feet,  asked  him  to  pray  that 
God  would  have  mercy  upon  her.  In  a  few 
minutes  her  countenance  beamed  with  joy,  and 
a  heavenly  peace  seemed  to  fill  her  soul;  and 
from  that  day  till  the  day  of  her  death,  which 
occurred  two  years  after,  her  whole  life  and 
conduct  were  changed.  She  encouraged  her 
husband  in  all  his  labors  ;  the  domestic  circle 
was  happy,  and  she  became  a  helpmeet  in  every 
good  work. 

As  no  minister  resided  near,  the  pilgrim  felt 
it  his  duty  to  visit  the  sick,  to  talk  and  pray 
with  them,  and  bury  the  dead.  This  gave  him 
many  opportunities  of  doing  good.  As  he 
believed  he  had  been  led  to  Christ  by  reading 
religious  books,  he  bought  from  his  own  scanty 
means  all  he  could,  and  lent  them  to  his  neigh- 
bors. The  books  opened  the  way  for  religious 
conversation,  and  he  thus  reached  many  that 
neglected  all  other  means.  The  frequent  evi- 
dences of  usefulness  still  encouraged  him  to 
make  farther  efforts. 

He  at  length,  with  much  fear  and  trembling, 
resolved  to  visit  all  the  families  in  his  neigh- 
borhood, and  talk  and  pray  with  them,  distrib- 
ute tracts,  and  loan  books.  He  made  it  a  sub- 


LABORS  IN  PRAYER-MEETINGS.          139 

ject  of  much  prayer ;  the  struggle  was  a  hard 
one.  But  those  Scriptures,  "The  fear  of  man 
bringeth  a  snare/'  and  "Whosoever  shall  be 
ashamed  of  me  and  my  words,  of  him  also  shall 
the  Son  of  man  be  ashamed  when  he  cometh  in 
the  glory  of  his  Father  with  the  holy  angels," 
seemed  to  ring  in  his  ears  every  day.  Some 
inward  monitor  urged  him  on,  and  at  last  he 
resolved  to  attempt  it  in  the  strength  of  God. 

The  first  house  he  entered,  he  shook  like  one 
who  had  the  ague.  It  seemed  very  difficult  for 
him  to  tell  his  business,  but  as  soon  as  he  made 
it  known,  the  burden  fell  off,  and  his  stammer- 
ing tongue  was  loosed  ;  he  realized  the  promise 
of  God,  "  My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee ;  my 
strength  is  made  perfect  in  weakness.'7  All  his 
fears  were  gone.  The  visit  was  well  received, 
and  he  that  watered  was  watered  in  return. 
That  day  was  all  spent  in  going  from  house  to 
house,  and  it  was  as  happy  a  one  as  he  ever 
enjoyed.  He  continued  from  day  to  day,  till  he 
visited  all  the  neighborhood.  Christians  were 
roused  to  duty,  and  some  sinners  were  awaken- 
ed to  see  their  need  of  a  Saviour,  and  to  ask  an 
interest  in  his  prayers  and  for  renewed  visits. 

One   incident   so   encouraged   him   that  he 


140  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

resolved  to  devote  all  his  leisure  time  to  this 
work.  In  a  family  he  was  visiting,  after  he 
had  conversed  with  others,  he  turned  to  a 
young  man  present  who  was  gay  and  thought- 
less, and  about  to  be  married.  He  asked  him 
if  he  was  a  professor  of  religion ;  he  said,  "  No," 
in  rather  a  sneering  manner.  He  asked  him  if 
he  had  never  felt  any  concern  about  his  soul. 
He  replied,  "Not  much."  He  then  urged  him 
in  the  most  importunate  manner  to  attend  at 
once  to  the  interest  of  that  part  that  never 
dies;  and  closed  by  saying,  that  he  might  be 
in  eternity  before  the  light  of  another  day,  or 
on  a  sick-bed,  from  which  he  might  never  rise. 
The  young  man  seemed  to  feel,  and  shed 
tears.  He  returned  home  some  miles  distant, 
and  retired  to  his  bed  in  usual  health  ;  at  mid- 
night he  awoke  very  sick,  and  the  exhortation 
of  the  evening  rushed  to  his  mind.  In  a  day  or 
two  he  sent  for  the  pilgrim,  who  lived  some  miles 
distant.  He  was  soon  at  his  bedside,  found  him 
very  sick  and  deeply  distressed  about  his  soul, 
and  in  a  great  measure  ignorant  of  the  plan 
of  salvation.  His  father  was  one  of  the  most 
brutal  drunkards,  and  his  mother  intemperate 
too.  The  fever  soon  fell  on  his  lungs,  and  all 


LABORS  IN  PRAYER-MEETING-S.          141 

hope  of  his  recovery  was  gone.  The  pilgrim 
was  at  his  bedside  three  times  each  week  for 
the  first  month ;  during  most  of  the  time  his 
agony  of  soul  was  great ;  but  God,  for  Christ's 
sake,  spoke  peace  to  him.  Immediately  he  be-' 
gan  to  exhort  all  that  came  to  see  him  to  flee 
from  the  wrath  to  come,  and  especially  his  par- 
ents. He  entreated  them  with  tears  to  forsake 
their  sins,  and  turn  to  God.  The  pilgrim  added 
his  exhortations  and  prayers.  Both  promised 
to  reform,  and  seek  their  soul's  salvation,  that 
they  might  meet  their  son  in  heaven.  He  lin- 
gered another  month,  his  soul  filled  with  peace, 
sometimes  with  ecstacies  of  joy. 

The  pilgrim  aided  in  conducting  the  funeral 
services,  and  gave  his  parting  counsels  to  the 
family.  The  result  was,  that  the  father  became 
distressed  about  his  soul,  and  at  last  yielded  to 
the  Saviour ;  and  soon  after  his  wife  and  two 
children  gave  evidence  of  conversion,  all  dating 
their  convictions  to  the  warnings  and  exhorta- 
tions they  had  received.  This  case  encouraged 
him  to  greater  exertions  for  the  souls  of  others, 
and  had  a  good  effect  in  removing  his  timidity 
in  talking  to  all  whom  he  met. 

Another  incident  impressed  him  very  forci- 


142  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

"bly.  There  was  a  very  irreligious  man  whom 
lie  esteemed  highly  in  many  respects,  but  whom 
he  never  could  summon  courage  to  speak  to 
about  his  soul,  though  he  had  many  opportuni- 
ties. One  evening  he  had  the  best  chance  he 
could  desire,  but  his  heart  failed  him,  and  with- 
in a  few  hours  the  man  was  in  eternity.  He 
felt  guilty  of  neglecting  his  duty,  and  resolved 
never  to  spend  an  hour  or  travel  a  mile  with 
any  other  person  alone,  without  speaking  to 
them  of  the  things  of  God  and  the  soul. 

Some  years  after,  when  he  was  travelling,  he 
fell  in  with  a  gay-looking  young  man,  an  entire 
stranger,  whom  he  addressed  very  seriously  on 
the  subject  of  religion.  While  he  was  explain- 
ing to  him  the  doctrine  of  the  new  birth,  the 
young  man  replied,  "That,  sir,  is  very  good 
theology."  The  reply  seemed  rather  signifi- 
cant, when  the  pilgrim  said,  Perhaps  I  am 
addressing  a  preacher.  He  replied,  "Yes,  sir, 
I  am."  The  pilgrim  told  him  of  his  promise 
made  some  years  ago,  not  to  spend  an  hour  or 
travel  a  mile  with  any  person,  without  speaking 
to  him  of  the  soul  and  eternity,  and  hoped  an 
apology  was  not  necessary.  The  young  preach- 
er replied,  "You  have  given  me  a  reproof  I 


LABORS  IN  PRAYER- MEETINGS.         143 

shall  never  forget,  and  from,  this  day  I  will 
adopt  the  same  rule." 

Did  the  subject  of  this  narrative  go  farther 
than  was  his  duty  ?  If  you  are  a  Christian, 
think  of  the  debt  of  gratitude  you  owe  to  him 
who  gave  peace  to  your  soul.  The  blessed 
Jesus  must  have  died  if  there  had  been  no  other 
sinner  on  earth  but  yourself.  It  is  emphatically 
true,  that  every  redeemed  sinner  in  heaven  and 
on  the  earth  can  say,  Jesus  died  for  me.  You 
were  under  sentence  of  death  in  the  prison- 
house  of  sin,  your  feet  fast  in  the  stocks,  the 
day  of  your  execution  fixed,  and  all  the  imple- 
ments of  torture  ready,  a  flaming  sword  turn- 
ing every  way  before  you.  Jesus  Christ,  with 
full  knowledge  of  all  that  it  must  cost  him,  took 
your  fetters  upon  him,  agonized  in  the  garden 
of  Gethsemane,  was  nailed  to  the  cross,  mocked 
and  derided  by  wicked  men,  and  died  a  shame- 
ful and  ignominious  death  for  you. 

After  all  this,  do  not  God,  angels,  and  men 
expect  you  to  live  for  his  glory ;  yea,  does  not 
Jesus  command  you,  "Son,  go  work  to-day  in 
my  vineyard?"  Will  you  do  it?  Will  you 
show  your  gratitude  by  obeying  him?  Will 
you  use  the  talents  he  has  given  you  to  advance 


144  THE  PILGRIM  BOY. 

his  cause?  Or  will  you  hide  them  in  secular 
duties,  or  behind  the  counter,  or  in  some  mere 
worldly  occupation,  and  hide  from  others  all 
God  has  made  known  to  you  of  this  wonderful 
exhibition  of  love  and  mercy?  Would  not 
this  be  like  robbing  Christ  of  part  of  his  own 
blood?  Is  it  not  a  kind  of  sacrilege,  or  squan- 
dering a  portion  of  divine  love  and  compassion? 
In  view  of  all  that  Jesus  Christ  has  done  and 
suffered  for  you,  can  you  reconcile  it  with  your 
own  conscience  to  do  nothing  for  him  or  for 
his  cause?  If  so,  beware  lest  he  cast  the  un- 
profitable servant  into  outer  darkness. 

I  entreat  you  by  his  dying  love  to  enter  the 
vineyard  in  some  department  at  once.  If  you 
are  not  too  far  advanced  in  life,  and  if  you 
have  talents  and  oratorical  powers,  enter  the 
work  of  the  ministry ;  but  if  you  cannot  do 
that,  you  can  teach  in  a  Sabbath-school,  you 
can  spend  your  leisure  hours,  if  no  more,  in 
visiting  families  near  you,  talk  and  pray  with 
them,  give  them  a  tract,  or  loan  them  a  good 
book.  You  will  be  twice  paid  for  it  all ;  you 
will  be  blessed  yourself  in  this  life  with  spirit- 
ual comfort  and  growth,  and  in  heaven  undying 
souls  may  be  stars  in  your  crown  of  rejoicing. 


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